Lighting Fires
by hairflippingchildren
Summary: In 1994, the Triwizard tournament is hosted for the first time in several hundred years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But danger is looming, is anyone really safe?  Fred/Angelina; George/OC. Follows GOF, with one plot change at the end.
1. Sparks

**A/N: Hello all! This is the first Harry Potter fix I've written in a very, very long time, so I'm sorry if it's not great. This follows the books. If you recognize a character, it's Jo Rowling's, but I'd really love to own George & Fred… and Oliver and James Phelps. Sadly, I'm poor and can't afford the rights to them. (Damn…) Dumbledore's speech about the tournament is clearly not mine, and that really pisses me off, but it's still Jo Rowling's. **

The students of Gryffindor. Brave, strong, chivalrous, and completely ready to die for each other. This was a lesson sixteen year old Cynthia-but she will curse you if you call her her full name-Sutton learned very quickly in her sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This was her second year of dating her boyfriend, George Weasley, and she was still warming up to the idea of dating him. Originally, it had never been her idea to date him, in fact, she'd been very much intimidated by the idea. But after an accident that may or may not have been an accident after a high adrenaline quidditch match, mixed with way too many hormones, the two of them were forced to solidify their feelings for each other.

_"Go, go Gryffindor!" Everyone screamed around her as the victorious red and gold crowd stormed up the stone staircases. Surprisingly, no one was pushing too hard as they all tried to make it up to the common room for the after party. It was a very good thing that Oliver had kept the team back, or no one would make it out alive. As she pushed through the portrait hole, she beamed at her friend Mathilda. She'd obviously seen the grin on her face when Fred had knocked that Ravenclaw off of his broom. _

_"Don't say anything. Do not say anything," Cyn warned Mathilda. So she merely smiled and nodded, but her smile was not an innocent one. No, by no means was it innocent. "What? What are you dying to say then?" Cyn said exasperatedly, the look on Mathilda's face made her look like she was going to explode if she didn't say it quickly._

_"He totally likes you, I kept catching him looking over at you," She finally spilled out._

_"Or he could be looking at, oh I don't know, the ten kilo ball flying around in mid-air that could easily give our seeker a concussion!" Mathilda shrugged, and Cyn looked away quickly, this wouldn't be over, she'd be pestered to death about it later that night, after the party had unofficially ended. However, Cynthia had already formulated a plan while she'd been walking up the stairs. as soon as George got in the room, amongst all the cheering and screaming, she'd run up and hug him, almost like laying her claim. It was a sick way to work, even dogs would be offended, but that's just how you had to silently fight amongst the Hogwarts girls. Within five minutes, screams and cheers erupted amongst the front of the crowd, signaling that the Captain and star seeker had entered the common room. Cynthia pushed her way through the crowds to the small opening that was forming around the team. The two beaters entered and she felt a smile break across her face. She looked at them both, found the one with the scar on his eyebrow, and ran towards him, throwing her arms around him. The next part, she had not expected, as she was stepping away from him, she felt his hands cup her cheeks, and pull her in roughly. And there it was, amongst the hoots and hollers that had ensued, George Weasley was kissing her, and she could swear she heard Mathilda applauding behind her._

"I swear they get shorter every year," Fred Weasley said making his way down the aisle of the Hogwarts express.

"Or maybe you just get taller," His on-off girlfriend Angelina commented airily, opening a compartment and stepping inside it.

"It seems like these get colder every year too," Cyn said, pulling a sweatshirt out of her backpack, and then storing it on the rack above the seats. As she sat down next to the window, she watched the last bits of London fly past on the train.

"I've always wondered why my mum makes me come down to London just to get on the train, I mean honestly, couldn't she just let me and Danny go down to Hogsmeade, stay with Patti and Zak and then just walk up to Hogwarts? Honestly it's too much bloody effort," She said, in her usual quiet tone.

"Yeah, why does she make you come down? I bet you're closer up in Drumnadrochit,"

"She used to say that's it's all part of the experience, taking the Hogwarts Express in, but that's easy for her to say, she lived in London! Why she decided to move to the middle of the highlands still confuses me, London was great," she turned her head and looked out the window.

"So how are you not a prefect this year?" George asked her, pulling her gaze away from the scenery.

"Dunno, 'spect McGonagall doesn't think I'd do a good job, what with me being friends with you losers,"

"Ah, see I'd well agree with you, but you love us losers," George said, and leaned in, kissing her gently on the lips.

"Well, I think I'm going to vomit now, so you two have fun there," His twin brother said, standing up.

"Bugger off," George replied as Cyn giggled loudly.

"See, that doesn't work, because that's exactly what I'm doing," Fred replied suavely.

"Fair," George shrugged and leaned back in his seat, his fingers soon found Cyn's and they entwined. Angelina rolled her eyes, "Really, I swear it's like she's just been off to war or something!"

"She's been off to war? Why not me!" George said, sounding offended.

"Oh please George, you couldn't handle it, you'd be setting off fireworks across the battlefield," George grinned and nodded, accepting a glorious defeat.

"But still, it has been three months," Cyn replied, smiling innocently.

"You really don't think that scene you two made on the platform was enough?" Fred said, standing in the doorway of the compartment, both his hands on the doorframe above him.

_As she came through the entrance to platform nine and three-quarters, her younger brother Danny in front of her, she turned and kissed her mum on the cheek._

_"Write to me please, dear," her mum had said, and Cynthia looked down at her and smiled. Her mum was a short witch, only a hundred and fifty three centimeters tall, and compared to Cyn, who stood at 168 centimeters. _

_"I will, and I'll make sure Danny doesn't steal any toilet seats anymore, bye mum!" She kissed her mum on the cheek, and started making her way down the crowded platform, looking for the fairy-like girl with the mousy brown hair. She was looking for the petite blonde who would probably be the cause of her lack of sleep for the next two hundred and seventy days. But most of all, she was looking for the tall red-head who really needed a haircut, who she might just have to murder for only writing her four times over the summer. She found the latter first, and kept an eye on him and she put her bags on the train, and stacking her empty owl's cage on top. Her owl, Holmdel was probably circling Hogsmeade, looking for her sister and brother-in-law's house just outside of Hogsmeade. As she turned away from the train, she looked up just in time to catch the tall ginger's eye. His face brightened even more than it had been, as he'd obviously been taking the mickey out of his younger sister. She stepped forward, and he walked past his mother who was zipping up his youngest brother's sweatshirt._

_"You didn't write," was the first thing Cyn said to George._

_"Sorry," he hugged her, lifting her to her tiptoes, and then their lips meet for the first time in ninety-three days. His hands cupped her face, his thumb slowly tracing circles on her cheek. Her arms which were hanging lamely at her sides rose into the air, wrapping themselves around his neck, with her right hand holding the back of his head. Slowly, they let go of each other, and George fell right back into his regular self, "Well, I better be forgiven, I think that was worth several forgivings," he said, and smoothed out his hair. George turned and saw a stunned looking Ginny Weasley staring, her mouth wide open. Cyn hid her face in her backpack and laughed. _

_"Don't worry, I'll just hex her if she says anything to my mum," as the words left his lips though, Ginny was already tapping on her mother's shoulder, and in a flash, George was over there, Cynthia on his heels. He pulled Ginny into a tight hug, eliciting a massive laugh from Fred and Ron._

_"Hi Mrs. Weasley, it's so nice to see you again," Cyn said as Mrs. Weasley pulled her into a hug. _

_"It's nice to see you too, oh won't you keep track of Fred and George for me, although, Ron tells me you've done a pretty good job of keeping track of George anyways," The blood rushing to her face, she watched Ron slip away into the crowd. _

_"Oh, um, yeah, I s'pose, I'll keep track of them, well, I'm going to go get on the train now, I have to make sure my little brother go on safely, and isn't causing any trouble,"_

_"Alright dear, you have a good year,"_

_"You as well," she said, before red-facedly getting on the train, attempting to find her brother. _

"Anything off the trolley?" The usual witch who pushed the trolley asked.

"Err, yeah, can I have a box of Bertie Bott's and two pumpkin pasties, please?" Cyn stood up, paid her and sat back down with her candy.

"God I'm starving,"Cynthia said as she tore open the packaging of the pumpkin pasty.

"Did'ya have breakfast?" George asked, not bothering to feed his urge and take her hand again. Damned hormones.

"Nah, wasn't hungry," she said, her voice back at it's usual unobtrusive volume.

As the maroon train sped past hills, lakes and forests, the sun reached it's peak and began sinking. The chatter and laughter was loud in their compartment, but Cynthia was quiet. This wasn't unusual for her though, nearly everyone who knew her was used to her slipping into bouts of silence, where she would just stare blankly at everyone, with so much knowledge and so many ideas passing behind her eyes. George glanced over at her occasionally, while either Angelina or Fred was talking. She seemed awfully tired, he'd never really seen her this tired before.

A loud rapping on the glass of the compartment silence everyone, and Cyn shook her head, coming back to reality. The door slid open, and a petite brunette and average height blonde girl stepped in.

"Sorry George, but we're going to steal Cyn, and she's going to have to bring her robes too,"

"Really, I'm disappointed in you George, we have less than three hours until we get to Hogwarts, and you've not even snapped her out to get dressed," Mathilda said, shaking her head disappointedly, before snatching Cynthia's hand and pulling her out of the compartment. Once the door was shut, she glared at her and then slapped her.

"Aah, what the hell?" Cyn said clutching her cheek.

From inside the compartment, George's eyes widened as he watched the brunette, Aria, slam a copy of the Daily Prophet to Cyn's chest. He hadn't actually seen the Prophet today, and was going to get a copy before he left the Burrow, but had forgotten to steal it off of Ron.

A matter of seconds after that, the girls had disappeared down the train, probably to go change. He looked at Fred and nodded, and they both stood up, "Going to change," was all Fred said to Angelina, and she nodded, looking out of the window.

As he tied his red and yellow tie, albeit loosely, but still tied, he sighed, he was beginning to get hungry. Fred yanked open the compartment door, and both Angelina and Cyn were talking about staffing changes.

George sat down and leaned forward on his elbows, perching them on his knees. He looked out the window at the dark surroundings, and soon saw the blackness of a forest. He leaned backwards in the seat, "Only two more hours now I guess," he stretched his long arms up, his knuckles grazing the luggage rack, then let them slowly fall to his sides, letting one rest on Cynthia's opposite shoulder.

"That was cheesy, smooth, but cheesy," Cyn said quietly, smiling slightly. She put her feet up against the wall with the window, and leaned back into George, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. After about ten minutes of sitting like this, Fred moved to sit next to Angelina, letting them have the whole seat. George moved closer to the door, and let Cynthia stretch out more, she rested her head in his lap, and as he, Fred and Angelina talk, he absent-mindedly began playing with the loose bits of her hair. As she fell deeper into her daydream, she soon fell into a light sleep, still acknowledging every word that was said in the room. Every few minutes or so, George's fingers would lightly graze her forehead, and she felt herself blush slightly, but the redness would subdue, and she would fall back into her trance. She had a lot on her mind, and she hadn't had more than 5 hours sleep in the past month.

A change in the atmosphere and a slowing in the train's momentum had alerted her they were arriving at Hogsmeade. She slowly lifted her head up, and then sat up fully, pulling her ballet flats back on her feet. She yawned, and stood up, pulling her backpack off the luggage rack.

"Only you would bring a backpack," Angelina said to her, and Cynthia couldn't tell if she was joking or being serious. Cynthia and Angelina had always had sort of a forced relationship, Angelina had always seemed rather cold and unwelcoming, and as Cynthia was shy and not very loud, she never was really able to penetrate Angelina's barriers like the twins had. It had been easier for Cynthia to make friends with the boys however, all she had to do was laugh, fight back occasionally, and speak her mind, much easier than when she'd attempted (and failed) to hang out with the Ravenclaws in her classes for the first year of school. Originally, she'd been friends with Fred, he was the louder, more outspoken twin, but as she began talking to them, and beginning to know them, she found herself gravitating towards George, mainly because be was slightly quieter, and also seemed just that bit more studious. Halfway into her third year, she'd meet two girls: Mathilda Nadler and Aria Gabriel. Mathilda was in Gryffindor with her, and Aria in Hufflepuff. As she grew closer to the twins, she also grew closer to the two girls, and as she slowly developed, or recognized, her feelings for George, she confided in Mathilda and Aria alone. That was when the trouble started happening. As a Gryffindor, Mathilda kept telling Cynthia to jump headfirst into it, but as a Hufflepuff, Aria wanted her to wait, discover more about George, develop a stronger bond. After a defining conversation in her potions class the day of the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor quidditch match, they had developed a plan. After the match, Cyn would hug George, and George alone, and every week after that she would increase their physical contact. The plan however, as these plans tend to do, didn't happen, instead, after running up and hugging George, in the blur and adrenaline of the moment, he'd kissed her. And not alone, not by any means alone. It had been in front of nearly every Gryffindor student and his twin brother. To make matters worse, it had been Cynthia's first kiss, so after they'd parted, she turned around, and in the silence, looked at Mathilda and giggled like a six year old girl. Everyone told her they thought it was sweet, but she still had the constant nagging feeling that people thought she was odd and a bit of a loser. On the next trip to Hogsmeade after the incident, they'd decided they'd leap into the freezing water and come out as boyfriend and girlfriend, and so, they were now into their sixteenth month of dating, with only five fights, and only two of them had been anything major.

As she disembarked the train and got onto the carriages, she pulled her sweater arms around her hands. But it didn't last for long, George pulled her hands into his own, exponentially bigger hands, and held them tightly.

"Well you're just all about the cheese tonight, aren't you?" She said, speaking the mind of the other two passengers of the carriage.

"Sorry," he said, but still not letting go of her hands. As the carriages came up the hill towards the school, a man with long ginger hair walked down, waved to their carriages, then turned on the spot and vanished.

"The Hell?" George said loudly.

"Was that Charlie?" Continued Fred.

"The devil was he doin' here?" Finished George, looking very much confused. But by the time they entered the castle, they'd just agreed to drop it until they could write to him.

However, before they could make their way into the entrance hall, several hollers and people pointing to the sky made them all look up. There was a large black object in the dark grey sky, and it was growing bigger by the second. The car of Magical Creatures teacher, Hagrid, walked past the massive group of students onto a long area of space, that had obviously been cleared for whatever the shape was to land. As it drew nearer and nearer, people started realizing what it was. It was a giant carriage being drawn by giant horses.

"Whoa," Fred and George said in unison, and Cyn pulled herself up into the stone frame of the empty window in the courtyard hallway. As soon as the carriage landed, amongst gasps and random applause from all the Hogwarts students, a small ship, just the top of the mast, made it's way across the Great Lake. But as it got closer to the banks of the lake, the mast shot out of the water, revealing a massive pirate ship. There were even more gasps, and then teachers ushered them all inside, the castle abuzz with the theories of what they'd just witnessed.

"So what do you think it is then?" Angelina asked, grabbing her boyfriend's hand. This was the first time Cynthia had seen them show any form of affection towards each other in a very long time.

"Dunno, quidditch tournament maybe? I'd love to beat that little Malfoy prick in front of a massive group," Fred said biting his lip.

"I'd just like to watch the sheer excitement and possibly horror on their faces when they see Harry come out," his twin finished.

As they all sat at the Gryffindor table, Cynthia's eyes followed a short brown haired boy, and his two companions. As they sat down, she leaned into Fred.

"Is your brother dating that Hermione girl?" Fred shook his head and shrugged, "He probably would like to though,"

"Are you kidding me, Fred? He went on about her all summer, where were you?" George asked, looking confused.

"Not paying attention, I have better things to do then listen to two of my brothers swoon over girls," George rolled his eyes.

"Only two?" Cyn said, deciding to be slightly more mischievous than she usually was, "I'm sorry Angelina," she said smiling impishly.

The entire hall quietened down as the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore stood in front of his owl-embellished podium.

"We will start the sorting of first years now," He seemed awfully quiet this year. As Professor McGonagall called the names of the first years and sorted them. Everyone's eyes were more focused on the empty seat where the Defense Against the Darks Arts teachers would usually be sat. After the first years were sorted and seated at their correct tables, food appeared, and no one thought twice before digging in.

George kept glancing over at Cyn, she seemed slower than usual. She was always quiet, but she usually moved very deliberately, now she moved as if she was in a constant dream. Her trances were also very normal, but they never lasted this long, or when there was this much noise. She accidentally dropped a glass, and it smashed to the floor, but very few people noticed. Slowly she pulled out her wand and muttered ''Repairo," picking up the re-assembled glass.

"You alright?" George asked her, his eyes tracing every line on her face.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, just tired," she said looking down the table past George. Everyone was slowly finishing up their deserts now, and pushing their plates away.

Several minutes later, Dumbledore once again approached his podium.

''So!'' He said above the chatter,''Now that we are all fed and watered,''

'I must once more ask for your attention while I give out a few notices.'' Finally, the whole hall was silenced, ''Mr Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming yo-yo's, Fanged Frisbees and Ever Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises of some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it.'' Both Fred and George slammed their fists down on the table.

''As ever, I would like to remind you all that the Forest in the grounds is out of bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all those below third year,'' several first year students turned to each other to silently mouth questions.

''It is also my painful duty to inform you that the inter-house Quidditch Cup will not take place this year.'' Nearly everyone on the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables grounded, including, and most loudly, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Once the noise had died down again, he continued, ''This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy - but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts-'' A loud bang of thunder and crashing noises interrupted him, followed swiftly by the enchanted ceiling rushing black clouds over the previously clear night sky. Several people screamed, and Cynthia flinched slightly. Then, a man entered dressed in what looked to be a dragon-hide trench coat. Whispers erupted amongst the calmer students, and Angelina said, louder than the rest, "Is that Mad-Eye Moody?" Fred and George nodded in unison, and Cynthia said nothing. She recognized him from when she used to go to the ministry with her dad. She had seen him a few times in the elevators, and was always terribly frightened by him.

''May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody.'' Dumbledore said, his voice completely calm, as if the ceiling had not just gone demon on them all. The entire hall was silent, but Dumbledore stood up there clapping and showing Moody his seat.

''As I was saying, we are to have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event which has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the TriWizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year.'' The tension filled the room until Fred said, very loudly, "You're JOKING,". Then tension melted away and practically everyone laughed, even Dumbledore.

"I am _not_ joking, Mr. Weasley, although I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar…" Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.

"Er- but maybe this is not the time…no…." said Dumbledore."

"Wicked," both the twins said in unison, and Cynthia turned her head and smiled at George.

''The TriWizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago, as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry - Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the Tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities - until, that is the death toll mounted so high that the Tournament was discontinued.' 'There have been several attempts over the centuries to re-instate the Tournament, none of which have been very successful. However, our own Departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that, this time, no champion will himself or herself in mortal danger.'The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang have already arrived with their short-listed contenders, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Hallowe'en. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the TriWizard Cup, the glory of their school and a thousand Galleons personal prize money.' Lots of excited noise came echoed throughout the hall, 'Eager though I know you all will be to bring the TriWizard Cup to Hogwarts, the Heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose and age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age - that is to say, seventeen years or older - will be allowed to put their names forward for consideration. This-'' Angered yells came out, most prominently from Fred and George.

"Boo! You don't know what you're doing!" Fred yelled down the table.

"Are you kidding me?" George echoed. However, Dumbledore continued, shooting a look down the Gryffindor table towards the twins, causing Cynthia to smirk and turn to shake her head at George, still laughing.

'-Is a measure that we feel is necessary, given that the Tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion. I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen. The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be remaining with us for a greater part of this year. I know that you will extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!'' As everyone stood, and several sixteen year olds looked thoroughly angered, Fred turned to Cynthia, "You'll be seventeen by October won't you?" Cynthia nodded quietly, brushing a strand of her fringe out of her eyes.

"Well? Are you going to put your name in?" He asked her, expectantly.

"Absolutely not, didn't you hear what he said? People die in this tournament!" Fred rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, but they're going to make this a tournament for sissies! They've already taken the fun away by making it only for people of age," Cynthia shook her head softly.

"I'm not going on a suicide mission, thanks," As they made their way up to the common room, both Fred and George tried to convince her to put her name into the cup.

"Really, I'm not going to," she said, as she pushed open the door to her new dorm room, "Are you guys coming out later?" She asked, halfway in the door. George and Fred both looked at each other, shrugged, nodded in unison, and then entered their dorm room. As she entered her dorm room, she saw a copy of the Daily Prophet lying on the table next to the furnace in the center of the room, she grabbed it, and shoved it under the bed which had her trunk next to it. Opening her trunk, she pulled out most of her belongings, shoving them in the nightstand next to her bed, and started pulling out her picture frames. One by one she set them on her bed. She had two of her, Mathilda and Aria from Hogsmeade last year, the second one a snowball crashes into the back of Aria's head, sent over by none other than her boyfriend, Eddie Carmichael, the Ravenclaw. One of the pictures, the one with the cleanest frame, was of her and George walking down the Hogsmeade High street, looking back once or twice at Mathilda, who was taking the picture. It was her favorite picture of them, as she laughs multiple times, throwing her head back once. Her last picture is a picture of her, her mum, her dad, her younger brother Danny, her older sister Patti and her husband Zak at their wedding. She set the first three pictures on her bed frame, but took one look at the picture of her family and tucked it back in her trunk, before sliding it under her bed.

Holmdel's cage stood empty by her bedside table as she unrolled her poster of her favorite band, the Weird Sisters.

The fireplace crackled and several groups of people talked quietly in the common room. Cynthia sat between George's legs with her back to his chest, reading a book she'd just recently borrowed from her sister. Fred and George were tossing a firecracker prototype back and forth. Apparently the point of it was that you could toss a firework back and forth, enjoy the pretty lights and not have any noise of get burned. It seemed harmless and like it would sell well, so they spent their time tossing it back and forth talking about their schedules.

"So we've got Defense Against the Dark Arts third tomorrow right?" George asked and Cynthia replied before Fred had the chance to, "Yeah, and Potions before that with the Ravenclaws,"

"Well at least it's the know-it-alls instead of the pricks," Fred said, referencing their schedules last year, which had them taking Potions with the Slytherins. "Last year Danny had Muggle Studies with the Ravenclaws, he said there was no point in even trying to answer the questions, they always got to it first," She said, returning her attention to her book.

"All the better, it's not like I'm going to try and answer any questions anyways," George said tossing the firecracker towards the ceiling. It made impact, crackled loudly, scaring several third years, then falling into Fred's hands. She closed the book carefully then stood up, "I'm going to bed, I'd like to at least _try _and make a good impression this year," She turned, kissed George on the cheek and then started walking towards the staircase. "What? I don't get a kiss!" Fred yelled mockingly after her. She made a rude hand gesture and then walked up the stone stairs daintily.

"You all better knows these curses by now, and if you don't I might just have to use one on you, because even the fourth years knew them," Alastor Moody said, pacing in the front of the classroom, "Can anybody gives us a summary of what they are?" He said through clenched teeth, his eye circling at a fast speed. Cynthia's hand was already in the air, before he had finished the question.

"You, up," he pointed at her, and she slowly stood up, already regretting offering to answer the question. She liked being right, but she didn't like being recognized for it.

"Name?"

"Uh, Cyn Sutton,"

"Right, have they found your father, Sutton?" Cynthia stared blankly at him, blinking several times before shaking her head. She hadn't told anyone yet that her father had been missing.

"Shame, he was good at his job, the ministry's lost a good worker," He said and then continued, "Now give us your answer,"

"Uh, well, there are three unforgivable curses, the imperious curse, the **Cruciatus** curse, and the killing curse. Um, there's only one wizard that had ever been recognized to have survived them, and his name is uh Harry Potter, as uh, everyone should know by now. They're called unforgivable, because they are such, and they will get you sent to Azkaban, even with a trial," She said, then sat down quickly, her face bright red. She looked straight ahead, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone, she could feel their eyes on her.

"Correct, I take it you don't need me to demonstrate them, but over the next few weeks, we will be working on your resistance to the charms, obviously not the killing curse, but the imperious curse and the **Cruciatus **curse," There was whispering around the room about the illegality of it, and several Hufflepuff girls squeaked amongst themselves.

As the class was dismissed, Cynthia rushed out of her seat, and out the door, hoping to not make contact with anyone. She was nearly down the stairs completely until someone called her name.

"Cyn, wait!" Aria called to her. She turned on the spot and watched as the short girl ran down the stairs, two steps at a time.

"What?" She asked bitterly.

"We thought you'd told everyone," Aria said, as Mathilda joined her.

"No, I'd not told anyone, and I was planning on keeping it that way until I was ready to tell people about it, unless they read anything about it in the Prophet," she said sharply, biting the inside of her cheek until it bled.

"Oh," Mathilda said, "Well, I'll see you in Transfiguration," she said. Mathilda knew when Cyn wanted to be alone, so she pulled Aria by the elbow away from her. She walked slowly down the stairs, the crowd of her classmates now closing in on her, but no one asking her anything. Her empty hand hung awkwardly by her side, and she trudged down the steps, still knowing that her cheeks were red. She felt a hand around hers, and she shied away from the touch until she realized who it was.

"How long?" Was all George asked.

"5 weeks," she said, understanding what he was asking.

"I'm so sorry," He said, pulling her into a hug at the bottom of the stairs, resting his chin on her head. She felt his warmth around her, and sighed as his unique scent wrapped itself around her face.

"There's nothing we can do about it," She whispered into his chest. She felt another hand on her back and realized it was Fred's. She stood back, "Sorry, I don't mean to be such a drag," she said to the both of them and smiled weakly.

"You're not," Fred said, his signature broad smile wiped from his face.

Later that night, after dinner, Cyn sat at a table by the window, doing the first homework she'd gotten all year. The conversations taking place around her were mainly about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and his less-then-legal way of teaching. Cynthia had been relatively quiet that evening, not something out of the ordinary for her, on occasion, she would go whole days without talking. It's not that she was anti-social, on days like that, she might sit in at one of the loudest conversations, she just wouldn't contribute. The carriage and the ship were still outside, and occasionally teenagers would come and go from them, but from what the rumors were saying, the students were taking all their classes in there for the time being, until October when they would be formally introduced to Hogwarts. Once she finished up her homework, she slowly rolled up the parchment and slid it into her bag, taking out her book.

_"Morning Zak," Cynthia said, pulling her hair back._

_" Morning Cyn, Patti wants to talk to you," Zak said, not bothering to look up from his newspaper._

_"Where's she?" _

_"In the garden," Cynthia slowly walked out to the garden. The fresh air, the sound of birds chirping and the warm sun beating down on her was enough to wake her up quickly. She loved being in the countryside. Sure, Drumnadrochit was in the middle of nowhere, but it wasn't as gorgeous as the country. Patti was sitting on a bench, and her face was in her hands, a piece of parchment in between her fingers._

_"What's wrong?" Cyn asked urgently. Patti looked up, her eyes red and swollen, and handed Cynthia the paper._

_'Dear Patricia and Cynthia, _

_I'm just going to be completely blunt about this, I see no other way to put it. Daniel and I have just gone up to London to meet with the auror office. You're father has been missing for about a week now, and although every attempt has been made to find him, he has not been found yet. The auror office is currently looking for him, and with any luck he'll be found soon. Patricia, I think it would be best if Cynthia stayed with you and Zak until she has to go back to school, I think being in the countryside would do her best right now. Daniel will stay with me here in London, and you'll just have to side-along apparate with her to London, unless you'd like me to send Holmdel up with a portkey, which is completely fine._

_Do keep in touch,_

_Love,_

_Mum.'_

_"How the hell can she be so calm about that?" Cynthia yelled at no one in particular, feeling herself tremble. Her eyes stung and within a matter of minutes she was crying and shaking. Her sister held her and they remained like that for another half an hour, the warm morning sun burning their skin and lightening their hair. _

_Hours later, Cynthia sat up in the spare room that would now be hers for the rest of the summer._

_'Hey George and Fred,_

_ I have no idea how to write these bloody letters, so hi. How've your summers been? Feel like coming to rescue me? My mum's making me stay here for the rest of the summer. It's odd being able to walk a mile and see Hogwarts, I don't like it. Have you guys come up with any new prank stuff? I'm so bloody bored I think I'll even find muggle chess interesting._

_Sorry it's so brief, I'm just about to cross the insanity line, so you might be seeing me at St. Mungo's soon._

_Love and kisses (not to you Fred, sorry to disappoint you, I know how much you love me!),_

_Cyn. ' She rolled up the parchment and tied it to her owl, Holmdel's leg, and sent him off, then she fell onto her bed, and let the tears fall more._

As the leaves turned red and began falling off the trees, Halloween made it's swift approach, and the castle seemed more lively. Soon, the Triwizard Tournament would begin, and students would be allowed to enter. On Saturday the fifteenth, Cynthia rose early, to go down to breakfast. As she slowly dressed, she looked at her calendar and realized what day it was. Silently celebrating, she made her way downstairs to the great hall, she had a little extra bounce in her step. She slid into a seat by Mathilda and cheerfully said, "Good morning Mathilda, lovely day out isn't it?"

"Oh yes it is, aren't you excited to go to Hogsme- OH MY GOSH HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Mathilda hugged her tightly and then swore loudly, "I left your present upstairs!"

"That's fine, I wasn't expecting one anyways," she said, still smiling as she helped herself to toast.

"I'll give it to you in Hogsmeade, are you going down?"

"Well I have to, yeah? I'm going to take my apparition test,"

"Right, damn, you're lucky, I've got to wait until January,"

"And we've got to wait April, so suck it up," the twins said, sitting down. George leaned in and kissed Cynthia's cheek while Fred fake vomited.

"Happy birthday," George said.

"Yeah, happy birthday, but please don't be doing that nonsense all day," Fred echoed.

"Come on George, control your hormones," a voice yelled down the table, everyone looked down and saw the youngest male Weasley sitting with his friends.

"Bugger off Ronald," George said.

"Yeah, come off of it Ronald, I think it's sweet, just because you can't get a girlfriend doesn't

mean you should take it out on people who can," Ginny said, sitting next to the Hermione girl.

"Damn, he's leading a lonely war, inn'he?" Cynthia said, taking a sip of her orange juice.

"Yeah, as long as he keeps being a prat," Fred said, putting an ungodly amount of bacon on his plate.

"So I've decided I'm going to enter myself," She said as if it was nothing.

"Really?" Fred and George said in unison, looking equally shocked.

"Yeah, what've I got to lose?" She said airily.

"Oh, I don't know, your life?" Mathilda said, giving her a look that should really be reserved for insane-asylum escapees.

"Well, I figure, eternal glory doesn't sound so bad, I mean, us Sutton's have nothing to our name, except for a clan that was defeated by the english in about twenty five minutes, might as well have a Sutton that's worth something, as I doubt Danny's going to do anything special," she nodded to her thirteen year old brother who was attempting to balance a spoon on his nose.

"Wonder who you're up against," Fred wondered aloud, looking around the hall.

"Well, I've got my money on that Diggory boy, from Hufflepuff, you know the one, the prize quidditch player?"

'"Yeah, we went to the quidditch world cup with him this summer," Cynthia dropped her knife.

"You went? How the hell did you make it out alive?" She asked her eyes wide.

"Well, we sort of left Harry behind, didn't we?" George said to his brother.

"You went with Harry Potter? Are you kidding me? You should have told me, I'd have sent you money to bet on the irish for me!" She said, breaking out in a smile.

"I knew there was a reason I was dating you," George said high fiving her.

"But aren't you a scot?" Fred asked.

"Well spotted,"

"Why were you rooting for the irish then? Aren't you supposed to hate them?"

'"Yeah, but I hate Viktor Krum more," She said, twiddling her spoon in her fingers.

"I think you're the first girl to ever say that,"

"Oh no, he's gorgeous, but he seems like a complete prick," she looked at George's face and then laughed, "But he's not as good looking as you," She winked at Fred and he laughed.

The orange, red and brown leaves made a satisfying crunch under Cynthia's converse as they walked to Hogsmeade. She'd had a great time pulling out her wand for everything, giggling as she did so. She was levitating a bright orange leaf in the air when she felt her foot sink down, and she fell over, face first into the ground. Clutching her nose, she rolled over and spit blood.

"What the hell?" She pushed herself up on her elbows, and wiped her nose on her black hogwarts sweatshirt.

"What'd you trip on?" Aria asked, watching her closely.

"I donno, my foot just sunk down.\,"

"There's no hole for it to sink into..." Mathilda said as George helped her up.

"You okay?" He asked, his eyes focused on her bloodied nose.

"Yeah it's alright, my nose tends to bleed over nothing," she replied sweetly.

"I know, remember that time you hit your head on the table and it started bleeding?"

"Or when you were sliding on the ice down by the shrieking shack and it started bleeding?"

"Or when-"

"Great, thanks guys, that's great," she said, doing a final wipe of her nose.

"Well since we don't want you falling again, maybe I should just carry you," George said picking her up. Cyn screamed and kicked, "No put me down George!" She laughed and screamed, I'll curse you!"

"Oh we wouldn't want that would we, you imperio'ing me, and making me do whatever you want me to,"

"Alright, that's not what I want to hear," Fred said as he, Aria, and Mathilda sped up. George dropped her and yelled after his brother, "Damned lightweights," and soon after, they were all running, George and Cynthia chasing Fred, Mathilda and Aria.

Hogsmeade was really crowded that day, so they all just went their separate ways for an hour, agreeing on meeting up at the Three Broomsticks at two for birthday drinks for Cynthia.

Cyn decided upon walking around by herself, enjoy the silence, and her new ability to use magic for whatever she wanted. Checking her watch, she decided she would go take her apparition test and get her license, that way she'd have it done with and not have to wait in the long later.

Forty minutes later, Cynthia triumphantly exited the testing area, now able to aparate legally. She'd always been good at apparating, never leaving so much as a hair behind. She started walking towards the shrieking shack, realizing she now had an extra twenty minutes a sshe could just aparate to the Three Broomsticks. She was delighted to find that she was the only one in the immediate vicinity of the shrieking shack, so she sat on a rock, and pulled out her book, reading silently. The cool air around her gusted and died every few minutes, and with one gust, she heard a loud scraping sound behind her. Startled, she turned back and saw a copy of the Daily Prophet stuck between a relatively large stick and the ground. She picked it up and looked at the front page. The headline was something about the ministry instating new personnel to the Wizengamot, but the story title next to it was what caught Cynthia's eye:

'Ministry Official Missing for 7 Weeks.

Scottish auror George Sutton has been missing for 7 weeks, as of Friday, October 14th. His wife, Maureen Sutton, had said that both herself and the auror office are searching for him, and every possible way to contact him has been made, all have failed. The Auror office has ruled out dark magic, and Mrs. Sutton agrees. No further comments have been made by either the ministry of the missing man's wife. The Daily Prophet has been forbidden to ask Mr. and Mrs. Sutton's underage children. Their only underage child, Daniel Sutton is currently attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as is their next oldest child, Cynthia Sutton. We have contact their oldest daughter, Patricia Harrison. No comments have been made. Story still developing. ' Unnecessary anger flashed through Cyn, and as she pulled the prophet out of where it was stuck, she also wiped out her wand.

"Incendio," she practically yelled at it. The paper burst into flames, and she jumped back as a lick of the flame touched her. Trying to push back tears of angst and shame, she turned on the spot, and watch the bright orange swirl behind her.

She tripped backward and apologized to the poor third year she'd just apparated next to, and sheepishly walked into the Three Broomsticks, her head hung.

"Cyn! Over here!" Aria yelled at her from the back of the pub. Plastering a fake smile on her face, she made her way to the table squeezing in between other tables.

"So what'd you buy?" Cyn asked nodding towards the mounds of bags Aria had next to her. Both of Aria's parents were filthy rich, and her whole family had been for centuries apparently. They were one of those odd families that had all of their offspring in Hufflepuff. Cynthia had always found that odd, she'd always just assumed that the legacies were in Gyffindor and Slytherin, never Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, as those were the slightly more down to earth, and level-headed houses.

"Just some stuff for the dorm room, oh, that reminds me, you won't believe what your little brother did in the common room last night," She groaned, this wasn't going to be good.

"What?"

"Well there's this girl in fourth year, Megen Jones, and she's a real laugh, but I don't think she ever really means to be, she's just really loud, and so if she says one joke, the whole common room hears it, right? So your brother, who's usually also really loud, but not in the way she is, ok? Well he goes up and sits down next to her, and while she's finishing up some joke that has loads of people in stitches, he stands up and whispers something in her ear, and she looks up at him, her face bright red, and nods. By now everyone's confused, and then he leans in, winks at her and kisses her full on the lips,"

"What the hell! He's only fourteen! He's too young to be doing that sort of stuff!"

"But didn't you and George?"

"NO! Well, yes! But that's different!" She whined, going into protective older-sister mode,"He's not mature enough, he's got the mind of a little boy!" She continued, folding her arms over her chest.

"Funny, I seem to remember Mathilda telling me that you had a teddy bear on your bed for the whole of year four..." Aria countered.

"And she still does," Mathilda said, sliding into the booth seat next to Aria.

"Do not," Cyn replied, her face red enough to match her boyfriend's hair color.

"You absolutely do, but it's a different one then it was in year four, you must have a collection or something," she said, shaking her head, looking very proud of herself.

"I hope you don't mind, I think Eddie's coming as well, we've not had much time together this year," Aria said, watching the door of the pub open.

"Nope, I don't want to spend too much time on my birthday anyways, I s'pect Patti's going to make a deal of it and send me something huge and embarrassing though,"

"Good, let me be there when you get it," Mathilda said, and then pushed Aria out of the booth and onto a chair, taking the seat next to her.

"What? Oh who invited you tossers?" Cyn said upon seeing the two identical gingers.

"It's not a party without us," Fred said, sitting in a chair on the right side of Mathilda.

"We are the party," George said sitting in the booth next to Cynthia. Angelina stood there awkwardly waiting for Fred to pull her up a seat.

"Right, so now we're only waiting for Eddie and, um I think that's it,"

"God Cyn, you know how to make me feel lonely," Mathilda said.

"It's not my fault you like muggles better!" Cynthia said.

"They're interesting!" Mathilda defended herself.

"You know who would like her," George said to Fred across the table.

"How old is he?" Mathilda said excitedly, causing Fred to choke on the butterbeer he'd just been handed by a waitress. George bust out laughing, and even Cynthia laughed a little bit, quickly realizing who they were referring to.

"We're not talking like that," Fred said, finally done coughing.

"We're talking about our dad," George said, his face red from laughter. Soon Matihlda's face was red too, but not of laughter, of embarrassment.

"Right, well I've been waiting all day to properly embarrass Cyn so I'm not waiting any longer," Aria said, always the one to break awkwardness.

"Oh please no," she muttered leaning into George, wrapping her arm around his.

"Oh, but yes, you'll like this, once your face stops looking like a tomato," she said, pulling something out from behind her. It was a small box, and realizing that she was in fact, blushing a lot, Cynthia said very quickly, "Oh, of course I'll marry you Aria, why didn't you ask earlier?" Mock-fainting as she said it.

"Very funny, this is oh so much better than an engagement ring, but George, hurry the hell up," She said, handing Cynthia the box.

"Really, you're not helping with how red my face is," Cyn said, taking the box. As she slowly unwrapped it, she looked out the window at the passing Hogwarts students. After she finally opened it, she burst out laughing looking at what was inside the box, with a sheer piece of fabric covering it. Holding back a scream, a smile ripped across her face.

"Thank you soo much!" She practically screamed at Aria, pulling five Weird Sister's tickets out of the box. She leaned across the table, hugging her tightly. "When are they for?" She asked excitedly, looking at the tickets.

"July seventh, I believe, my da-er, family got invited by their manager, so they're floor tickets," Deciding to ignore Aria's covered way of saying her father got them, she instead grinned even more brightly, "Thank you so much, this is amazing!" Mathilda gave her a pair of bright neon high tops that changed color depending on where she was, what the volume of the area was, what the temperature was, and what her mood was. It was another pair to add to her already big collection of high tops. Fred gave her a small wooden box that sang your favorite song when you opened it, and George told her he'd give her her present later, eliciting a loud "aww" from Aria, which in turn earned her a death glare from Cynthia.

As they walked back from Hogsmeade, the sun gently setting over the black lake, the orange light fading into a purple, Cyn kicked up the leaves in front of her, a smile still plastered on her face, as it had been all day. Originally, it had been forced, but as the day progressed, it had become more natural.

"6 days until Halloween," Fred said, walking next to his brother.

"Are you going to enter, Angelina?" George asked his brother's girlfriend, who'd been awfully quiet that night.

"Yeah, I am, I bet being a chaser might help me you know, not die," Cyn smiled slightly.

"That's awesome Angelina, I hope you get picked, I think you'd do great," She felt the need to say something nice to her, she'd barely spoken to her all week.

"Aren't you putting your name in?" She asked. And that's why Cynthia had never truly warmed up to her, she'd always seemed very cold.

"I'm not sure, maybe, I don't think I'm good enough with wand work to compete with everyone else,"

"Oh," she said quietly, and not another word was said between the two girls for the rest of the walk back. The twins however, were not quiet for more than a few seconds.

But none of them noticed the change in the air, or the looming darkness that sat behind the castle, ready to capture all the happiness it could.


	2. Flashes

**A/N: Hello all! Here's the next chapter, seriously guys, review, it helps me as a writer, as I'm kind of crap. FYI, If you recognize it, it's Jo Rowling's, and I'd love to have it, but I don't.**

"Well that was bloody amazing," George said as he sat down on the couch in front of the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room.

"Those beauxbaton girls.. whoa," the newly single Fred sat, sitting next to his twin brother. He'd just recently broken up with Angelina after they'd gotten into a fight about something or other. Cyn hadn't really been paying attention when they'd talked about it.

"Oh come off it, they weren't all that pretty," She said reproachfully as she sat on the floor next to the roaring fire.

"Were you even in the same room as us?" Fred asked, looking genuinely confused, "They were bloody gorgeous!"

"Could not have said it better myself, Fred," George said and Cynthia raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh really now? Well I think I'd much rather have Krum over any of the boring boys here, he's so good looking, and strong too. Oh, and he's actually a good quidditch player, too." She crossed her arms and looked at George expectantly.

"Oh come on, he's not that good looking!'' George replied, his ego sorely hurt.

"He's just as hot as you two think those beauxbaton girls are,"

"This is sickening," Fred muttered.

"Actually no, he's not just good looking, I think he's rather sexy," Ignoring Fred, she laid back on the carpet, feeling the warmth from the fire cover her body. It was now George's turn to cross his arms.

"Well that's not fair, I just said the beauxbaton girls were pretty,"

"So?" Cynthia said, very offended, and not feeling any better.

"Well I didn't say they were prettier than you..." George's voice dropped in volume, and he looked like an injured puppy.

"I didn't say you weren't sexy, either," Cynthia replied, rolling over to face the fire to hide her smile.

"Excuse me while I vomit," Fred said, actually sounding disgusted.

"Bugger off," George replied.

"Really, I don't think you get what that means, I'm telling you I'm leaving, and you're just telling me to hurry up! We all know you want me here!" Cyn laughed into the fireplaces, and her eyes grew heavy as she watched the tails of the fire kick up and fall down gracefully.

"Who'd like to go first? If no one volunteers, I'll pick randomly," Moody said pacing in the front of the classroom. They were working on their reactions to the cruciatus curse, and all the desks in the room had been cleared. No one had said anything the entire class period.

"Well then, you, Sutton," Cynthia tried to step back. Why had she bothered to answer that question on the first day? Ever since then, he'd picked her for everything, no one else bothered to make their presence known in the classroom. The class was now split on either side between boys and girls, juvenile as it was, Moody had told them it would make it easier for them to get through their work. Cyn said no logic in it, but not bothered to argue back.

"Yes you, come on, center of the classroom, now," He said, pulling out his wand. Feeling her whole body tremble, she stepped to the center of the stone floor.

"Remember, clear your mind, calm it, and imagine yourself at peace, if you can successfully do that, then you'll feel a reduced pain, and it'll be over quicker. I'll keep the curse on'ya until you've calmed your mind. Ready?" It wouldn't of mattered if she wasn't. "Crucio!" A pain shot through her whole body like a thousand burning daggers. She wasn't sure if she had let out a scream, but found herself clutching at the flag stone, convulsing in agony. The next time she knew she screamed, feeling pain in every inch of her body. It was like every layer of her skin was being slowly ripped apart, and pulled off her body.

"Calm your mind, Sutton!" She screamed out, how the hell was she supposed to calm her mind. She was known on her hands and knees, nails digging into the floorboard. Between her screams she counted back from five. Her bones screamed out in protest and she turned her back in a truly unnatural way. She felt pain in places she didn't even realize she could feel in. The inside of her thighs hurt the most, it felt like the skin there was slowly being burned off with a piece of piping hot metal. Her thoughts cleared, as she lost the will to live slowly. It was either her taking control of her mind, or losing it, but she felt clarity. Even as she screamed.

"Imagine yourself at peace, imagine a peaceful place," Her eyes flung open as she screamed again, and she imagined herself in a garden. The sound of the ocean surrounding her, and the smell of lilies, and cinnamon, and... and George. She imagined a warm breeze enveloping her skin, but didn't realize that the warm breeze was just another wave of pain. Slowly, her whole body was numbing itself, and she felt herself cling to the last bit of sanity. The daggers seemed to slowly drag themselves out of her body, layer of tissue by layer of tissue. She lay, curled up on the floor, tears streaming from her face, whimpers escaping her pursed lips.

"You need to clear your mind quicker, do you think the Dark Lord is going to wait that long? Absolutely not. He'd have killed you by now. Not that he'd personally kill you anyways, it would be a death eater. You, Diggory, help Ms. Sutton to a seat," She felt two warms hands on her, one on her right arm and one of her waist. They pulled her up and she shuddered. He set her on a table, letting her sit on it, and then sat next to her, and, with permission from Moody, sat there for the rest of class. He kept his hand on her back, rubbing it occasionally.

Midway through the torturous class, Alicia Spinet burst into tears, and soon after Cynthia joined her in her horror, when it was Fred's turn to go up. He writhed in agony for about forty-five seconds, managing to stay on his feet, then yelled out in pain. He was quick to clear his mind however, Moody only kept the curse on him for about a minute and a half. George was next, and Cynthia sobbed harder and louder as George yelled out in pain. She cried into Cedric's shoulder as George crumpled to the floor at the two minute mark. She saw Fred who was looking away, tears falling down his face. She'd never seen Fred crying before, and it was almost harder to watch him cry for his twin and best friend than to watch George writhing on the floor in pain. She knew George would give her grief for crying into Cedric's shoulder. Not because she was getting sympathy from another guy, but because he'd never fully forgiven Cedric for beating Gryffindor in the first match of the season last year.

Finally, after what felt like a century, class was over. And as half the class left quickly, the remaining tortured class somberly left, practically without a dry eye in the house. Cynthia found George in the crowd of people and rested her head on his arm, she was still too short to reach his shoulder. He pulled her in, wrapping his arm around both of her shoulders and holding her tightly. He leaned down and whispered into her ear, "I'm going to kill Cedric for trying to steal my woman,"

"Is that what you're really concerned about right now?" Cynthia asked, extremely shocked. All she could think about was the torture that had just happened.

"Of course not! I also want to know what's for lunch," she rolled her eyes as him, and felt tears roll down her cheeks.

Mathilda was nowhere to be found at lunch, and Cynthia, George and Fred skipped lunch, after losing their appetites from hearing the torture. So instead, they sat outside in the chilly autumn air. "I can't even believe he actually made us do that, I mean, the imperious curse is fine, you don't actually feel any pain, but the cruciatus curse? People have gone insane from it! My dad once told me about two aurors, Frank and Alice Longbottom, they were tortured into insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange and her husband, they're still in St. Mungo's and I think their son is in your brother's year. It's mad!" Cynthia's voice was extremely quiet, because if she spoke any louder, her voice would crack, "It was worse just listening to everyone else, especially you two, you both looked like abused puppies, and Fred, you made this little noise before you fell, it shattered my heart," She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to forget everything.

"Give me a piece of paper," she said, leaving her eyes shut.

"That was relevant," Fred said, and a tearing noise ensued. He handed her the paper, and opening her eyes, she pulled her quill out.

_Cynthia Sutton._

_~Hogwarts_

She folded the paper and held it between her index and middle finger.

"Really? You're going to put your name in after all that? I'd not be half surprised if the Durmstrang students used the cruciatus like you use expelliarmus!" George said, looking slightly proud. But only slightly. The rest of his face screamed jealousy.

"Oh I doubt I'll be deemed worthy, I can barely cast rictusempra in a straight line, and besides, I thought you lot had an aging potion going,"

"That we do, and I'm pretty sure Lee's got it upstairs by now," Fred said, jumping up from his seat.

"Alrighty Fred, I say we go give this a go," George said, following suit.

There was loud laughter as Lee Jordan ran down the stairs, followed by Fred and George.

"We've done it!" Fred yelled, jumping down the last few stairs.

"Done what?" His younger brother asked him, and Fred whispered a reply, Cynthia knew, of course what he was saying. They'd just taken an aging potion, and would soon be entering.

"We're going to split the thousand galleons between the three of us if one of us wins," Lee said smiling brighter than she'd seen him since last year.

"I'm not sure this is going to work," said Hermione granger, rolling her eyes,"I'm sure Dumbledore will have thought of this," The three of them ignored her.

"Ready?" Fred asked Lee and George, "C'mon then-I'll go first-" Cynthia's eyes widened and she crossed her fingers under her robes. He pulled the slip of parchment out of his pocket, and walked to the edge of the line. He stood there, rocking on his toes, and then stepped over the line. George let out a yell of triumphant as Fred successfully made it into the line. He jumped in after his twin beamed brightly. But shortly after, there was a loud sizzling sound, and both twins were hurled out of the circle like they'd were bludgers just hit by a very strong beater's bat. They landed, with a sickening crunch of the stone floor and they both sprouted identical white beards. Everyone in the entrance hall burst out laughing, including the twins, who were now on their feet.

"I did warn you," Dumbledores voice rang out, from straight behind Cynthia. She jumped slightly, and saw him exiting the Great Hall, "I suggest you both go up to Madam Pomfrey. She is already tending to Miss Fawcett, of Ravenclaw, and Mr. Summers, of Hufflepuff, both of whom decided to age themselves up a little too. Though I must say, neither of their beards is anything like as fine as yours." Dumbledore turned on his feet and left, leaving the rest of the population in the entrance hall quiet. A blonde girl from Beauxbatons, who had to be part veela, gracefully slid up to the goblet, attracting the attention of all the males in the room, including George. They all seemed mesmerized by her movement, and the way her hair flew gracefully behind her. She put her name in, and Cynthia's eyes flew to George's face, and he and his twin had mirrored expressions, their mouths open and eyes glossy. Several more Beauxbatons girls entered their names, and then retreated in a big group. The men in the room seemed thoroughly enchanted, and in a fit of jealousy, Cyn ran up to the Goblet, dropped her name in, to some rolling applause from the females in the room, then grabbed George by his forearm, dragging him to the hospital wing.

As Madam Pomfrey finished up with him and moved onto Fred, he grinned broadly.

"You're good to go Mr. Weasley,"She said in her sing-song voice, and Cyn grabbed him yet again by the forearm.

"See you later Fred," George said still smiling, and Fred rolled his eyes at his brother.

"You're not honestly jealous of them are you?" George asked in the rare moment when his lips weren't locked with Cynthia's.

"Of course I am," she said, leaning forward.

"Mmm, why?" He asked, pulling her head closer to his.

"Oh don't pretend to be naive, Georgie,"she kissed his jawline,"I've seen the way all the guys here watch them, you included,"

"Me? I never!" He said, his warm lips making contact with her forehead.

"Bullshit, especially that part veela girl that put her name in after you did," She grabbed his collar and pulled him up off the table they were both sitting on.

"Now if you don't mind, I've got work to do, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't distract me," she looked at him, and an idea formulated in her head,"And there was one Durmstrang student who caught my eye earlier, and _he _seemed pretty nice," winking, she walked off, deciding a trip to the library would be necessary.

As she sat in the library, pulling out a Hogwarts: A History, she flipped to the index, eyeing a group of Durmstrang boys that had just entered. One of them looked at her, and she smiled. Oh how sickening this dating game was, she thought to herself, looking back down to her book, if she could just get that Durmstrang boy over here, and bring him 'round to sit with her at dinner, she'd have George wrapped around her finger. Of course, it was completely unnecessary, as she already had the best, George was already (on the whole) altruistic, and handsome, and brave, and extremely witty, and who could ask for any better than that? But if she did want to throw him for a run, all she had to do was getting that boy over here, find out his name, and ask him to come sit for dinner. As she read, she concentrated very little on the actual text, although she was horrified when she found out that nearly every girl that took part in the Triwizard Tournament died very early, she kept looking over at the group of boys, smiling more brightly each time.

After about ten minutes of this, when she was losing hope, the tallest one of the group said something to the others and then made his way over to the table she was sitting at. What was it with tall guys and being interested in her? Was it some sort of inferiority complex where they had to be near girls that were half their height?

"Er, hello," He said, leaning smoothly against the table.

"Hi," she said smiling, and leaning back in her chair.

"Vot are you reading?" He asked, pretending to take an interest. Cyn was generally very good at deciphering when guys were just pretending to be interested to seem cool, she'd only ever called George out on that once, when she was on some rambling tyrant about muggle politics.

"Oh, just reading about the Triwizard Tournament, I'm Cynthia by the way,"

"My name is Yohan,"

"Nice to meet you," She said, her smile dying, but still existing on her face.

"So, you enter the tournament?" He asked holding the edge of the table.

"Yeah, and you?" She said, finding her own english faltering, and being slightly confused by it.

"Yes, but I think that Viktor Krum will be the champion,"

"And why not you?" She asked closing her book and setting it on the stack of books to be returned to their proper shelves.

"Our high master is always preferring him, as he is a very good seeker in quidditch,"

"I see," she was beginning to be bored with the conversation, "Have you been on a proper tour of Hogwarts yet?"

"No, I have not seen the school yet, only the outside, dining room, and library, our high master said it is better if we do not see the whole castle,"

"Well, would you like to break a few rules?" He looked confused, and she tried very hard not to sound exasperated, "Would you like to see the castle?"

"Yes, I would very much like to see it,"

"Well, let's go then, we only have so much longer until dinner," She stood up, and pushed her chair in, and walked with Yohan out of the library.

As she walked into the dinning hall with Yohan besides her, she winked at Aria who covered her mouth with the sleeve of her black cardigan. "Would you like to sit with us for dinner?" She asked him, slowing her pace to show off what she'd just achieved.

"Yes, it's very kind of you," He said, as she crossed the table and sat down next to George, who now had a very stunned look on his face, while Fred laughed into his hands.

"Fred, George, this is Yohan, he's a student from Durmstrang," She said as Yohan sat down.

"Yohan, this is Fred Weasley, and this is George Weasley, my boyfriend," she felt George's hand wrap around her waist and pull her closer to him, and she had to hold back a giggle. Yohan's face fell slightly, but he looked completely unabashed.

"Very nice to meet you, Fred, and George," His accent was thicker as he said George, and Cynthia smiled.

"Did you enter the tournament?" George asked, his grip tightening on Cyn's waist.

"Yes, but as I said to Cynthia earlier, I think Viktor Krum will be a champion," Fred, finally unable to control his laughter, sniggered loudly.

"Something funny, Fred?" George asked scathingly.

"No, no, nothing at all, don't mind me," On the other side of the table, across from Fred, Lee Jordan had his head down on the table and was practically in tears.

"I think our high master would like for us to get together now, thank you for being so very kind today, you are very lucky George, she is pretty girl, I will see you later, Cynthia," he said, bowed slightly, and walked away. As soon as he was out of earshot, Cynthia finally dissolved into a fit of giggles.

"So, you spent all day with Yohan then? Is he incredibly beautiful, intelligent, strong and _foreign_?" George said, mocking Yohan's accent.

"I did actually, and he is really intelligent, very academic, but he's not very witty, I threw a couple lines out there that you'd turn brilliantly, but he kind of shot them down awkwardly, he's really not as much fun to be around," She said biting her lip and looking towards the bleacher that would usually be the Slytherin table.

"Ah but he's completely gorgeous, is he not?" Fred said earning a death glare from both Cynthia and his brother.

"Yes, but I have a thing for gingers, I suppose," she said, as all the lights in hall extinguished themselves and everyone fell silent.

"He's going to be killed!" Cynthia said to Mathilda as they sat in the common room, Mathilda finishing up homework and Cynthia attempting to finish one of her books. "He's only fourteen!" She said, slamming her book down and clutching her heart. Mathilda nodded nonchalantly. "Why do you not care?" She said angrily, standing up. "I'm sorry, as far as I'm concerned if he was able to take out you-know-who before he was able to speak, I think he'll do fine,'' she said, not even bothering to look up from her homework.

"That was different! There were people protecting him! Now he's on his own! And I don't trust that Fleur girl, she looks like she'd kill if anyone got on her bad side!"

"Look, I don't think they're going to let him die out there, I'm sure he'll get outside help,"

"He's fourteen! It's like if Danny were in the tournament!"

"Alright, he's going to be fine, and I'm sure if Danny were in the tournament he'd be fine too!" There was no emotion in her voice and Cynthia was about to tear her hair out.

"WHAT WERE YOU ABLE TO DO WHEN YOU WERE FOURTEEN MATHILDA?" She yelled at her best friend.

"Listen, I have no idea what you lot are yelling about now, but I do know you were able to do some pretty interesting things when you were fourteen, Cynthia," George said, leaning on the back of the sofa.

"Not now George! He's going to be slaughtered!"

"Oh he'll be fine, he's Harry bloody Potter!" George said propping himself up and lying on the back of the sofa.

The trees were now bare, and the day before the first task came quickly. Cynthia had taken to worrying obsessively over Harry, which had become very annoying very quickly. She had been spending more time with Yohan, finding his stories extremely interesting, and only feeding her longing to travel. George had become very possessive of her, which started putting stress on her, much more than she'd have wished.

As she found herself in a joyful trance as the imperious curse was put on her in defense against the dark arts, she found herself wanting to not fight back. The feeling was so blissful, and she felt like everything was right. But as soon as she found herself being told to chuck a dustbin out the window, she fought against it using all her mental strength to pull herself out of her blissful trance. Sadly, as soon as she was out of it, she found all the stresses fall back into place.

"Good work Sutton," Moody said, and Cyn began daydreaming, going into one of her usual trances.

Walking to dinner that night, she found herself in the company of Yohan, once again.

"Hello," he said, smiling slightly.

"How are you?" She asked airily.

"I'm fine, and you?" He walked very deliberately, like a soldier.

"Very tired, are you excited for the first task tomorrow?"

"Yes, I was talking to Viktor last night, and he seems extremely prepared for it. Our high master told him what the task was, and I assume the two Hogwarts champions have known for weeks,"

"Er, I'm not sure, I didn't think they did, but I guess if Krum knows, then so do they," She said as they turned into the Great Hall, the smell of food heavy in the air, "Would you like to sit with us?" She asked him politely.

"I would like to, however, I think it'd be best to go sit with the rest of my school, as it is nearly the first task," he said, and turned away, she waved slightly and then continued on to the Gryffindor table.

"You want to place a bet?" Fred asked, holding a metal box.

"Fine," she said exasperatedly, knowing that the odds would be against who she was going to bet for.

"Alright, what's your bet?" He asked.

"I bet Harry places first, but gets a low score from Karkaroff," she said lazily, watching as food appeared on the tables.

"Interesting bet, why aren't you going with Krum? You seem to like Durmstrang,"

"Oh come off it George, that's what the whole tournament is about, _making friends,_" She said rolling her eyes.

"You sound exactly like Hermione Granger,"

"Do I now? That's great, at least someone's got brains here," she exhaled angrily and cut several slices of chicken for herself.

"It must be a girl thing," Fred said.

"The hell it isn't, I want to crush those bastards," Angelina said, sipping her pumpkin juice.

The air of the arena was both excited and nervous at the same time as everyone awaited the cannon signaling the start of the challenge. She was sitting with Mathilda and Aria near the Beauxbatons crowd. They were both talking excitedly, and Mathilda kept babbling on about how hot Cedric Diggory was. "You do realize he's dating that Ravenclaw girl, Cho Chang right?" Cynthia said wearily.

"Oh don't ruin my fun Cyn," Mathilda moaned.

For the entirety of the task Cyn kept falling in and out of attentiveness, and wasn't completely focused until Harry was jumping on a broom hurtling upwards towards the sky at unfathomable speeds.

"Is he on a bloody firebolt?" Cynthia asked, amazed.

"I don't know! Don't ask me, you're better off asking George, he'll know!" Aria answered and Cyn huffed. Harry of course, scored highly from all the judges, except for Karkaroff, as Cyn had correctly predicted, however, she had not predicted Krum to tie with him.

"Damn, do I not get paid, then?" Cyn asked her boyfriend as they walked up to the castle together.

"You get half I guess, you got the part about karkaroff giving him a low score and him getting first, just not the part about him tying with Krum,"

"Better than nothing," She said.

There was a massive party in the common room, not ending until till well after midnight, which also included Harry opening to Golden Egg, much to the dismay of everyone's ears. It shrieked and howled like a dying cat, and of course, Fred and George had a field day with it.

In the morning, all the Gryffindors were called to the Transfiguration classroom which was now completely empty, with a two sets of wooden bleachers on either side of the room.

"Ladies on the right, boys on the left," McGonagall called out as everyone begrudgingly went to their side of the room, it was early, only 9:30, and usually most people wouldn't have been up then on a Sunday.

"Boys, will you please pay attention?" She snapped at Lee, Fred and George once everyone had found seats.

"The Yule Ball is approaching quickly, and for hundreds of years the house of Gryffindor has commanded the respect of the wizarding world. I will not have you embarrassing us while acting like a bambling, bumbling band of baboons. Because the Yule Ball is first and foremost, a dance," The entire right side of the classroom exploded in chatter and excitement, while the entire left side seemed to sink twenty feet into the ground. As soon as the girls' chatter died down, McGonagall continued, "You are required to wear dress robes, and it will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, and end at twelve o'clock, it will be a time for you to socialize with our foreign visitors and improve upon existing relationships. It is open only those in fourth year and up," this elicited quite a groan from some loud third year girls, "although you may invite a guest who is younger." She proceeded to demonstrate how they were to dance using poor Ron Weasley to help. His brothers laughed uncontrollably behind his best friend, who also had a massive smirk on his face.

"Are we seriously supposed to dance?" She asked Fred as they walked through the portrait hole.

"I really hope she was joking," He said.

"Well who do you think you're going with then?" She asked him.

"I dunno, maybe I'll ask Angelina," He said quietly.

"So you two have made up then?"

"For the most part, yeah."

"So I guess you'll be waiting for Yohan to ask you then?" George said scathingly.

"Oh come on George, you know I want to go with you!" She said, very offended.

"But isn't he so much better looking than me? And he's foreign you know? Isn't that the point of the tournament? Hooking up with foreign guys?"

"_Really?_" She hissed, "That's what you think this is?"

"Yeah, maybe I do," He said, his voice shaking slightly.

"You are unbelievable George Weasley, I've told you so many damned times, he's just a friend, we're just friends, and I love you!" _Shit_. She thought, that was not the way she wanted to say that.

"Yeah, but you probably love him more, with his silly accent and they way he dresses, and how strong he is!" He said his face reddening.

"Oh honestly George, you're being silly! I don't even like him anyways, he's a bit arrogant," Heads were starting to turn at the pair of them, who were now standing in the middle of the common room, arguing.

"He's probably getting ready to ask you right now!"

"What? That's not even a valid point, I'd turn him down anyways!"

"Sure you would," he said sarcastically, his twin slipping away to go stand awkwardly by Harry and Ron.

"You know what? I might as well go with him! The way you've been acting lately, maybe I don't want to go with you!" Her face went bright red and she crossed her arms.

"Fine!" He said angrily, and feeling tears burning at her eyes, because she was angry that they were both saying the things they were saying, because she was miserable that she may not have a date to the only dance Hogwarts would ever have, and she wouldn't have George, and embarrassed that they were immaturely fighting in the middle of the bloody common room, with everyone in it. She turned on her heels and burst out of the portrait hole, practically running headlong to the library.

She tucked herself away in a corner of the library for most of her free time since her argument with George. She ate all her meals with Mathilda, who blabbered on mindlessly about hoping Cedric would ask her to the dance. She didn't have the willpower to tell her there was next to no chance it'd happen. As soon as she was done eating, she'd rush to the library, and sit there, crying over a book. She hadn't spoken to George, Yohan or even Fred for at least a week when Holmdel delivered her a package. As she unwrapped it, she groaned and bit her lip until it bled. It was a gorgeous blue satin dress with little crystal embellishments around the waist. Her sister had heard about the Yule Ball, inside was a note:

_Mom told me not to send you anything-she wanted you to wear something traditional, but bollocks to that. Oh, they think they've got a lead on Dad, but they keep saying it's not looking good. Stay optimistic. _

_Love,_

_Patti._

She crumpled the note up and lit it on fire. She didn't want to hear about her father. Unless they were going to tell her they'd found her and that he was completely safe and would be coming home just fine, she didn't want to hear about it. She'd done perfectly well skipping over that stupid little counter the Daily Prophet had going in the paper.

As the Yule Ball drew nearer and nearer, Cyn found herself feeling increasingly guilty and wanting to run up and kiss George full on the lips and tell him she was sorry and that she still wanted to be with him and that she still wanted to go to the dance with him, if he still did. But sadly, the true Gryffindor was squashed down by the more logical side of her, feeling that maybe it was better if they had a break, two years of constant affection toward each other couldn't be good for either of their mental health, even the fights they'd had, had never lasted as long as this.

Four days before the Yule Ball, Cynthia was leaving the library when a familiar face came up to her.

"Hi Yohan," She said, with all the happiness she could muster, after all it wasn't his fault George had decided to become possessive, and it wasn't his fault her dad was missing.

"Hello, how are you?" It could have just been the language barrier, but Yohan always sounded so formal.

"I'm fine thanks, and you?"

"Okay. So vill you be going vith, uh, vhat vas it? George? Yes, George, to the Yule Ball?" He asked her, looking very confident.

"Uh, no, I don't believe I will be, actually," she said, her voice cracking.

"Oh, vould you like to come vith me to the Ball then?" He asked her, a small smile appearing on his face.

"Um, you know what," she looked past him and saw George, Fred and Lee walking down the hallway."You know what? Yeah, I'd love to go with you, that'd be awesome. Thanks!" She said, putting on a smile.

"Excellent. I vill see you then," he said, and turned around to go join the rest of the Durmstrang boys.

Cynthia practically ran up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower, bursting through the common room up to the dorm room.

"Mathilda!" She yelled, startling some of her other roomates.

"What?" Mathilda asked, looking thoroughly shocked.

"I've just been asked to the dance!" She said excitedly, however, it was just an act, on the inside, she was crying little a little girl, wanting nothing more than to say she was going with George.

"Did George finally grow a pair and do it? I swear, he's been bitching about it all week, nothing but angst from him, he's constantly telling Fred and Lee that he regrets every minute of your fight, and just wants to ask you, but he's too damn scared! Keeps asking' me for help!" Cynthia gasped and stumbled back slightly.

"You're joking! You're bloody joking!" She nearly screamed.

"He didn't ask you..." Mathilda said, beginning to piece it all together.

"If I had known! Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, please don't do this to me now! No!" She said using the wooden support of her four poster bed as a balance.

"Who asked you Cyn?" Mathilda asked, her voice scared,"Who did you say yes to?" Cynthia shook her head and sat down on her bed, putting her head in her hands.

"Cythina Maureen Sutton, don't you dare tell me it's who I think it is," Cynthia nodded and moaned, falling backwards on her bed, her head hanging off the other side.

"George can't find out, he'll kill himself!" She said hurriedly.

"Don't be so dramatic Mathilda," Cyn said, her tone full of hatred and regret.

"I'm not! Tell her Angelina!" Mathilda and Angelina had an obviously better relationship, none of their conversations were ever forced.

"It's true, he's not been himself for days, keeps going real quiet, even Fred's tried to get him to do something and failed, and you know Fred, he never meddles with George's love life. George's been moping constantly, hasn't he Katie?"

"Yeah, he's barely said more than four words to me or Alicia," She said lazily.

"I'm going to hang myself off the Transfiguartion tower." Cynthia said, actually debating that as an option.

Her pleading eyes met George's several times at dinner that night, and it became apparent that halfway through dinner he found out who she was going with, as he started looking like an injured puppy, as he always did when he was sad. Cynthia buried her face in her hands and groaned. "Cynthia look! It's snowing!" Mathilda said. It had of course, already snowed, but only lightly, barely dusting the grounds.

"That's great Mathilda, will it help me fix things with George? Or get my dad back? No? That's a real bloody shame," she stood up and left heading for the common room. Somewhere between seven and nine she had fallen asleep, curled up in the armchair by the fire. Somewhere between one and two, a tall, ginger boy had woken her up and helped her up the stairs into her dorm room. She was too groggy however, to remember any of this, and no one else was in the common room then.

"So he got a Beauxbatons girl then?" Cynthia said sourly, pinning her mahogany colored hair up with a light blue bobby pin. She was wearing her ice blue dress, and it fit nicely, following the contours of her body to just under her navel, where it then ruffled out into a floor-grazing skirt.

"Yeah," Mathilda replied, fussing with the corset of her own dress.

"Doesn't surprise me, he could have his grand pick of the girls here really, he could probably even have that Fleur Delacouer girl if he wanted," Cyn said now putting in a small crystal stud earring.

"You nearly ready? I'm starting to nitpick at everything, and I'll be wanting to change by the time you're done," Mathilda said, pulling her wand out and muttering a quick spell to change the color of some lace on her skirt.

"Yeah," she put the back on her left earring, "Okay, let's go, oh Mathilda you look gorgeous," Mathilda was going with Oliver Wood, the captain of the quidditch team. He was rather handsome, and both girls wondered why there weren't many other girls chasing after him.

"You look stunning too, I'm sure it'll piss the hell out of George," her heart sank slightly. She'd had a dream last night that she'd be dancing with George, not Yohan.

"I suppose so" Cyn said, her eyes glazing over slightly.

The entire floor of the Entrance Hall was dusted with a white glittery powder, meant to imitate snow, and small flakes of what appeared to be real snow falling from the ceiling, melting about seven feet off the ground. As her feet touched the floor of the entrance hall, Yohan quickly made his way over to her, bowing slightly. From the corner of her eye she saw George, and her heart sank slightly, but she forced on a smile and took his arm. Still in her peripheral vision, she saw George huff and then take his date's arm and walk towards his brother and Angelina. George's date was gorgeous, but George... George looked amazing. When they started talking again, she needed to ask him how he managed to have such good looking dress robes while his brother was upstairs looking like Cynthia's grandmother's curtains.

Soon, everyone was ushered into the Great Hall, which looked nothing like the Great Hall, and several fourth years looked completely flabbergasted. Cyn leaned slightly on Yohan's arm and stretched her neck a bit to get a glance of George, who seemed to be fighting off boredom as his date talked at him. His date was very tall, very thin, but was extremely curvy, and very, very blonde. She seemed to blow Cynthia out of the water, what with her short stature, mahogany hair, and slightly more defined curves. Her face was also so much prettier than Cynthia's, the girl's cheekbones were really high and extremely defined, and her lips were very full, and every angle in her face seemed to flow harmoniously. Unlike Cyn, with her too-big lips and rounded face, where every angle seemed to fall into the next.

The music started playing, and all four champions came out. There were obvious sighs of anger when Cedric Diggory and Viktor Krum came out with their dates, and slightly more noticeable sighs of infatuation when Fleur Delacouer came out. Then came Harry Potter, with one of the Patil twins, it might have been Padma, maybe Parvarti, it didn't help that they were both wearing the same dress.

Before she realized what was happening, she was being gently pulled onto the dance floor, along with the other Durmstrang students, who seemed to be the first ones out. Yohan's hand was on her waist and they were gently gliding across the floor. Cyn had always been good at dancing, but she never realized she'd be able to slow-dance. She tried to keep her head down as they passed George, and felt her cheeks go red.

It had been at least an hour of straight dancing before her heels were swollen and they went to sit down. "This is fun," she said brightly as she sat down.

"Vould you like me to get something to drink?" Yohan asked her, and Cynthia pulled her gaze away from George.

"Uh, yes please, that'd be great," she said smiling up at him.

He'd been gone for at least five minutes when someone else took his place. She was too out of focus to realize.

"Hey," the voice broke her out of her trance and she glanced over at her new companion, before quickly turning back to look at the dancers.

"What do you want?" She asked bitterly.

"I want to apologize, I was a complete prick, I shouldn't have gotten jealous like that, you're completely right, this tournament is about international magical cooperation," It was a sweet apology, but Cyn saw right through it nonetheless.

"She kissed you didn't she?"

"What? How did you..?" He asked, seriously taken aback.

"This is the weirdest time for you to come over here and apologize to me, I've got a date getting me drinks and so do you, or you're supposed to, and she's infinitely prettier than I am- no, don't argue with me, she is, you're neither dumb nor blind, and it's the middle of the Yule Ball, so there are only two possible explanations, one, you really have decided you were a massive git, and wanted to make amends for it, but I know you, and that's not likely, or two, she's kissed you, and you don't want that getting back to me, because then you know I'd go off and do something drastic, and this would just get blown out of proportion, so I went with the second one, because I _know _you," He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it immediately.

"You are amazing," was all George managed to say. She leaned in until their forwards were practically touching,"I know, and I still have a date who is ten feet behind you with drinks for us,"

"I already know how to fix that," and he quickly turned, standing up. He found himself face to face with Yohan, and they both immediately straightened their postures, George just barely edging out Yohan in height. That would put Yohan at a sturdy 6"2 and a half, maybe.

"Listen mate, Yohan isn't it?" Yohan nodded solemly, "Right, great, you know there's a girl over, from Beauxbatons, her names Adelaide, and she's really interested In dancing with you, she's over there the blonde one," he pointed Yohan, who glanced backwards at Cynthia, who in turn she nodded at him and smiled lightly.

"So since I didn't get to do this properly before, would you like to dance?" He asked.

"You're a complete pouf," She said as she took his hand, her dress sweeping the floor below her. People were still dancing en masse, it was only 8:50 or so. As he pulled her close together and she rested her cheek on his chest he asked, "Does this mean I'm forgiven?"

"Let me think about that," she said as she put her hands on George's shoulders and he hoisted her up by her waist in time to the music.

"I think a change of music is in order," Professor Flitwick's squeaky voice boomed across the Great Hall,"And now, here is the band that needs no introduction," The floor near the Hogwarts' band slid up and appearing from thin air were the Weird Sisters. Cynthia screamed, along with every other girl in the hall, and pulled George towards the stage, squealing as she went.

"GOOD EVENING HOGWARTS! ARE YOU READY TO PARTY?" Screams arose from the predominately female crowd and the band busted out the first chord of their famous song 'This is the Night,'. Soon, the crowd was a sweaty mess, and George was pulling Cyn out of it towards his twin, and his twin's apparent girlfriend. Angelina. Again. She wiped her fringe away from her forehead and inhaled exhaustedly.

"This is fantastic," she said, attempting to recover her breath. George leaned into his twin and muttered something, all Cynthia could make out was bag, man, and gold. She eyed George as she sat down by Angelina, who was giving her a look that said that she was better than her, so Cynthia gave up trying to start a conversation, and sat back in her chair, fiddling with one of the loose waves in her hair. "We'll be right back," Fred said, steering his red faced brother away. They'd been quietly arguing.

"I'm hot and sweaty, and you're coming with me," Fred said to Angelina and Cynthia nearly spat out her butterbeer. They both ran off, giggling like four year olds making mud pies and George sat down next to Cynthia.

"You still mad at me?" He asked, squeezing her hand.

"Maybe, want to redeem yourself?"

"Depends, how do I do that?" He asked and she winked.

"You go get me food, how about that?"

"Damn. You got me excited for nothing." He said, standing up.

She was now seated next to a teary Aria, whose date, Michael McManus, had left her to dance with a girl from Slytherin. As she stood up to get water for Aria, and Mathilda who seemed on the verge of having a heat stroke, she found herself face to face with Peregrine Derrick and Lucian Bole, both beaters for the Slytherin team.

"What do _you_ want?" She snapped.

"Missing ickie-daddykins? Getting your friends to weep over it for you?" Bole said, sneering, showing his straight, white teeth.

"Very funny, where do get your insults, Frankie First-year?" She bit back, not in the mood for his nonsense.

"Think you're funny do you?" Derrick answered, "Bet your dad did too, see where that's got him,"

"Ooh, you're hilarious, did mummy ever tell you that? Bet she think's you're a real laugh. What's your mother do? Cleans toilets doesn't she? With the brains she's got, I'd not be surprised," Cynthia had only ever met his mother once, and his mother had spat in her face.

"Don't you say anything against my mother," He nearly yelled, now on the defense.

"Good, well I think you two will be leaving me alone, you can go back and dance, I must say, you two have go to be Hogwarts' first gay couple, congratulations," She said, attempting to push through them, but was unsuccesful, damned beaters and their strong upper bodies.

"You need to learn to respect your elders, Sutton," Bole said still smiling, in a sick way.

"Oh what, you're only a month older than me, aren't you? Stop pretending you're actually useful for anything," She stood back, putting her weight on her left foot, which was behind her. Her feet were swollen in her heels, but she wasn't going to back down from this fight.

"Well, I'm bloody brilliant with a beater's club, why don't you ask your boyfriend about that! Beat his pretty little face up in second year, didn't I?"

"Oh wow, that's amazing, you beat up a twelve year old, you should be very proud of yourself, very proud, taken him down since then? No, no I don't believe you have," she said, putting her finger on her chin, mock-thoughtfully.

"Bet I could, if I put any effort into it, want me to try?" He snarled.

"Really? When? Last time I checked we don't have any quidditch games this year, and you'll not be here next year, so I'd love to see you find a time to do that, without looking like a bloody lunatic. Then again, you just about always do that, don't you?" A blonde haired girl in a black dress walked towards Bole wrapping her arm around his.

"Is she bothering you, Lucian" She cooed, stroking his arm.

"Oh that's rich, you've got to have your girlfriend come protect you," Cynthia was easily overpowered by the girl, she had to be at least five inches taller than her. She recognized her, she'd had several classes with her over the years, but she'd obivously never paid attention to her name.

"Oh you leave him alone, won't you? You're just as filthy as those stupid mudbloods your boyfriend's family are so obsessed with," She said, flipping her blonde hair behind her.

"Don't you dare say that! Don't you dare! Your filthy little mouth obviously hasn't been trained better, got some daddy issues, do we?"

"Oh you leave her alone," Bole said, pulling out his wand from his robes. Derrik followed suit, as he had quickly become irrelevant.

"What're you going to do? Curse me, in front of three bloody schools?" She forced a laugh, "That's great, love to see what happens to you then!". From the corner of her eye, she saw Fred walking over towards her, a concerned look on his face. George had turned and started walking up the stairs quickly, followed by Angelina. Perplexed, Cynthia returned her attention back to the two wands pointing at her.

"I don't really care, so long as you're not around anymore," Bole answered bitterly.

"Funny, I seem to remember you starting this conversation, not me," She felt an arm around her waist. She looked to her side and saw Fred. Not George, Fred.

"Oh, great, are we going to have a cut-and-thrust?" Fred asked, and Cynthia played along, completely unsure of what was happening.

"So are you just going to have your boyfriend stand up for you now? I thought I told you I'd easily be able to kill 'im with a beater's bat," At this, Fred actually laughed.

"I'd like to see you try, now if you don't mind Ang-uh, Cyn and I are going upstairs to do things that would make your mother's cry,"

"SSH!" Cynthia hushed Fred loudly, feeling blood pump to her face. As they passed Aria and Mathilda, Mathilda nodded knowingly and continued patting Aria's back. Cyn yawned, it had to be at least 11 o'clock now, and judging by the amount of people still dancing, the common room would be dead.

"So should I ask why you're here and not George?" She finally said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them as the walked through the portrait hole, now separated.

"Oh, no reason, George just wanted to get up here quicker, said he had a pounding headache," Fred said, shrugging as if it were nothing.

"Right," she said, stretching it out to prove she didn't fully believe him.

"Are you going to go back down?" He asked her, looking at the couch longingly.

"No, actually, I think I'm going to go change, I feel like my feet are about to fall off," she bent down and took of her heels, running barefoot under her dress up to the dormitory.

"Okay, explain again what he said to you," Angelina said for what seemed to be the fifth time. Apparently, at the quidditch world cup, the boys had bet Ludo Bagman that Krum would get the snitch but Ireland would win, and they were right. They had bet their whole savings, and Bagman paid them out. But three hours later, the gold was nowhere to be found. They'd added two and two together and realized that he had given them leprechaun gold. He was know refusing to pay them back, and as they dug deeper into this, they'd found out he owed loads of other people money too, including a group of goblins.

"He said that if we told anyone what we'd found, he'd have our names down as known and practicing death eaters,"

"But he can't possibly do that!" Cynthia said, having been quiet for the past thirty minutes, "There's no evidence, it wouldn't hold up in an unbiased court room,"

"Except it wouldn't be unbiased, now would it?" Fred said.

"No, they don't take lightly to accused-death-eater trials, and usually the Wizengamot goes in there hoping to convict someone, usually you don't get it even,"

"That's bullocks though! You're underaged anyways,"

"We won't be if he get's his timing right, he's only got to wait 4 months really, then by the time all the legal work is filed, we're legal,"

"Oh," She hadn't thought about it that way, so she slumped back into her silence, rolling her pajama bottoms up. They were nice ones, violet with lilac stripes, and they were comfy too. As she rolled them up, she admired the way her legs looked when she wore these footie socks. She hated them, as they always fell down inside her high-tops, but they were nice to wear to sleep.

"Well, you could just not say anything," Angelina said, and Cyn forced herself not to roll her eyes.

"Yes, but we want out money back,"

"And the only way we'll get it back, is through blackmail," George continued.

"But he's already pegged us to the board with that one, so we're sitting ducks," Fred finished. Cyn idly picked up that day's copy of the Daily Prophet and scanned the front page, however her eyes were immediately attracted to the small countdown that had been at the bottom of the page for the past five months.

'Ministry Official Richard Sutton has been missing for: 4 months and 31 days,' her heart sank as she looked at the article next to it.

"Are Children to Blame for Richard Sutton's Disappearance? By Rita Skeeter

I took a break from my reporting on the Triwizard tournament to delve deeper into this terrifying story, of Richard Sutton. While searching for information that may have led to his disappearance, I decided to ask his seventeen year old daughter for an interview, however, she was unable to be interviewed, as friends have said she is always crying over books in the school's library. This is said to be because of a recent argument with her boyfriend (or fiancé? My sources have told me multiple things) over her friendship with a Durmstrang student. Her boyfriend is said to be none other than the older brother of Harry Potter's best friend, Ronald Weasley. One of my sources has said that she was always seen with her boyfriend, George Weasley, until one day where an explosive argument happened in the Gryffindor common room. Although the reason has been pegged as jealousy from a friendship forged with a Durmstrang student, the same source has also said she feels the argument was also sparked by possible guilt, saying that "Cynthia was usually an incredibly open and innocent girl, until this year, when she seemed to be hiding something, always falling out of conversations and into coma-like stages for hours, it's really crazy, like she's under the imperious curse,". This accusation led me to dig deeper into her family history, and found that her older sister, Patricia Harrison's husband, Zakary, has a brother who is in Azkaban Prison for feeding information to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named followers just four years ago, could Zakary Harrison have put the imperius curse on her and made her kill or hide her father? Is anyone safe at Hogwarts? Is George Weasley safe? More tomorrow, where I reveal further secrets I have found." Next to the article was a moving picture of Rita Skeeter, with a girl in a Hogwart's uniform. The uniform was obviously a Gryffindor uniform, but the girl's face was censored out. Standing up abruptly, feeling anger bubble up inside of her she pulled her wand out from her waistband. "Incendio," She practically screamed.

"You saw the article?" Fred asked, watching the news paper crinkle and turn to ash.

"Why would she write about me? What importance do I have to anything? I'm just his bloody daughter, and I just want my damned dad back! I never realized that was such a problem, and OH EXCUSE ME FOR BEING A LITTLE OFF, LET ME JUST ACT ALL JOLLY AND CHEERFUL ALL THE TIME, LET'S COMPLETELY FORGET THAT MY FATHER IS MISSING, AND LET'S PARTY. I'M SURE IT'S NOTHING, IT'S NOT LIKE HE'S GOING TO TURN UP DEAD IN A DUMPSTER ANYWHERE, NO, NO! LET'S JUST-ohgoddamit," she slurred, crumpling to the ground, landing on her knees. "Why can't this just be a quiet year? Why?" She said and tears trickled past her lips.

"Because you've already had five quiet years at Hogwarts, you can't really expect to get a sixth one, can you?" Fred said, and then shut up quickly.

"Ssh, shh, it's alright, everyone knows Rita Skeeter is barmy anyways, and it is a stupid article, she can't just attack sixth-years like that, you're barely of age, you're still at school," George said, sliding off the couch to the ground next to her.

"You know I'm not under the imperius right?" She asked, falling into George's grasp.

"Are you really asking me that?" He asked, obviously looking over her shoulder at Fred and Angelina.

"Sorry, I'm just angry, I just don't like this attention, it's not for me, I don't want people writing about me," she said, before standing up, "You know what? I'm making a bigger drama of this than I should be, I'm going to go to bed, then I'll flip out more in the morning," She slowly ducked out of the common room into her dorm room, holding her extra pillow to her chest.

The next few weeks until the next task passed rather uneventfully, there were only two more articles posted by Rita Skeeter about her in the Daily Prophet. To this, she received some unnecessary attention from som Slytherin students in her year, namely Lucian Bole and Peregrine Derrick. Then, four days before the second task, the worst happened. Sitting at breakfast while the mail arrived, several owls, about four, arrived for Cynthia. She wasn't used to getting this much mail, she rarely got more than one letter a week. They all dropped letters, and the Daily Prophet. Everyone down the Gryffindor table was silent, several just starting at their copies of the Daily Prophet. And so did Cynthia, she sat there starting at the headline, numb from shock.

**"Missing Ministry Official Richard Sutton Confirmed Dead.**

At three o'clock this morning, Ministry Official Richard Sutton, who has been missing for nearly ten weeks, was confirmed dead. His body was found just outside Ottery St. Catchpole. Three other wizarding families live near this predominantly muggle town. Two of which also boast Ministry Officials, both were available for comment, Arthur Weasley of the office of Misuse of Non-Magical Objects, did say that it was 'a tragic loss,' and 'can't wait for justice for him and his family,' and Amos Diggory who works for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, said, "This is a disturbing tragedy," and, "Richard will not be forgotten easily at the ministry,". No comment from the family of the deceased."

She set the newspaper down on the wooden table and stared, feeling a sinking feeling in her heart. Sure he'd been missing for three months now, but she'd help optimism, she'd held to the one speck of light that he'd be safe, that he'd come home. Still staring in front of her at the wall, she slowly began opening the letters. The first was from Patti and Zak, telling her everything, everything they'd been told and that she could come spend the summer with them, and that she should check if Danny was okay. The second was from her mother, telling her everything, in her rather official way of speaking, and told her that she was to come home with her for the summer, and that Danny was going to spend the summer with some of his friends. She crumpled up the note and put it to her side, she could still feel the entire table's eyes on her. The third letter was from Mrs. Weasley, and she was amazingly kind about it, saying that she was welcome to come for the summer if she pleased, and that she would be writing to her mother later, and that she sent her sympathies, and if Cynthia needed anything she'd be more than willing to help her. The final letter was in a purple envelope, and she didn't even need to see the black 'M' emblazoned on the front of it, before she crumpled it up to, without reading it. She stood up abruptly, forgetting about finishing her breakfast, she shoved the two letters she kept in her robes and made her way over to the Hufflepuff table to find her brother. She found him opening the purple letter as well, then tapped him on the shoulder. The Hufflepuffs were quiet too, the only loud table was the Slytherin table, even the Ravenclaws were quietly looking around the Great Hall at the silent tables. Danny stood up, tears in his eyes, and they both walked out, Cynthia leaning on her taller but younger brother's shoulder.

She leaned against the last tree before the black lake, holding the letter from Mrs. Weasley tightly in her left hand, in her other hand was a quill, and beneath that was a piece of parchment. Both George and Fred had taken their turns trying to convince her to come for the summer, and eventually her mother had relented and said it was okay. Cynthia hadn't laughed in three days, and now that the excitement for the second task was building up, it didn't seem like her face would be boasting a smile any time soon. She slowly began writing,

"**Dear Mrs. Weasley,**

**Thank you so much for your invitation to spend the summer, both Fred and George have been hounding me to say yes, although I was already planning on saying yes, anyways. I would love to spend the summer, if it's not to much of a bother for you. I think it'll be nice to be away from all the drama while my mother works on my father's estate. I do know, however, that my mum has planned a boat trip on Loch Ness for Danny (my brother) and myself, but George and Fred are more than welcome to come, in fact, I think it would save me from imminent boredom. Again, thank you so much for your invitation, and I'm very excited, thank you! **

**Yours, **

**Cynthia Sutton. **


	3. Scorches

**A/N: You really don't know how eager I have been to write some action, not this piddly little fight stuff, so I'm getting ready for some action. ;-) Thanks to xXChlerekXx and kewlbanana for reviewing, and yes, Cynthia's life can get more miserable. And it will.**

**I don't own anything you recognize, but Jo Rowling did give us Pottermore, that I'm getting to beta-test! Woot! **

As she walked up to the owlery, all the snow melted off the ground, she watched her feet, her blue, denim high tops scraping the ground precariously. She hadn't felt normal for three days, she always felt awkward, but nothing compared to this. The sad part was in the one year that she was finally growing into herself and feeling comfortable with herself, this happened. From inside the owlery, she heard yelling, and stopped in her tracks.

"You can't do this! You've got to get better marks then he does!" A scottish girl's voice rang out.

"He helped me with the dragons! It's only fair," That was Cedric Diggory for sure, so that would make the girl Cho Chang.

"But you've got to beat him, he's fourteen, and he's Harry Potter," Cho said again, and Cynthia began walking forward towards the owlery.

"He deserves a fair chance!" As Cynthia walked into the stone tower, they both fell silent and turned to look at her.

"Hello Cedric," Cyn said rather quietly, and then nodded at Cho.

"You alright, Cyn?" He asked politely.

"Erm, yeah, never been better," She said, tying the piece of parchment to her owl Holmdel, and then petting his feathers slightly.

"I'm sorry about your father," Cho offered, half-smiling.

"Thanks," she muttered as she left the owlery, walking quicker than she had before.

"So have you decided then?" George asked as she sat daintily on the couch, squeezing herself into the corner with her legs closed tightly.

"Decided what?" She asked feebly.

"Are you going to come spend the summer with us?" He asked impatiently.

"Yeah, I just sent an owl to your mum," she'd not made eye contact with anyone since her father's body had been found, and still found it hard to even look at people's faces.

"Great! thanks!" he said, and she nodded, looking at the floor, faking interest with it. "Cyn?" She looked up abruptly then winced.

"Mmhm?"

"Are you okay?" He asked, his voice lower now, more caring, and less attention grabbing.

"I will be," she said, standing up and retreating to her dorm room.

The excitement for the second task filled the air thickly as everyone trudged out to the shore of the Black Lake. In the middle, standing sixty feet out of the water, was a large platform, that looked a lot like a deep sea oil drilling rig. The three flags of the schools represented hung on the platform, like awnings covering a building being renovated. As Cynthia silently clambered aboard one of the boats that would take students out to the platform, she flicked her wand absent-mindedly, accidentally setting fire to one of the oars. After quickly putting it out, George caught her eye and smiled, but then just looked down at her knees sheepishly.

As soon as they reached the platform, the twins started yelling at people to get bets, and Cynthia slowly climbed the stairs to the top of the platform, where she pushed to the front of the crowd and leaned over the bars, getting a good view of the murky water, which had been temporarily cleared, below them. She was clad in her special-order red and yellow high tops, black jeans and red and orange Gryffindor sweatshirt with the name 'POTTER' scribbled across the front, as she assumed all Gryffindors would be dressed. She was quickly proven wrong though, as Mathilda came up wearing a yellow sweatshirt with the name DIGGORY, written neatly across the front and back in black lettering. She also had yellow and black streaks in her hair.

Five minutes passed and soon it was time for the champions to stand at the edge of the platform. Fred and George finally came up to the top of platform, holding a tin that made more noise that the screaming girls, as it was so full of gold. Soon, the champions were diving in to the roar of the crowd.

"YEAH HARRY!" George screamed loudly from right behind Cynthia, he had both of his hands on the back of her waist.

Thirty minutes into the task, Danny tapped George on the shoulder, and he stood back from Cyn. "You ready, Cyn?" He asked, and she looked up at him, tears glistening in her eyes, and nodded.

"Where're you going?" George asked turning away from the water, and Fred followed his twin.

"M-memorial," Cynthia said, as quietly as she could over the deafening crowd. George nodded, and pulled her into a hug, his lips brushing against the top of her head, and Danny looked away, crossing his arms. Fred smiled and nodded at Cynthia, and she pull him in for a tight hug too, catching him off guard.

"I'll be back by Monday, if.. if it all goes well, I suppose," she said, and then ducked into the crowd, following her brother.

"So what's this I hear about you and Megen Jones?" Cynthia asked. Even if she wasn't cheerful, she didn't enjoy the silence that had fallen between her and her brother.

"Nothing, nothing at all, how-how do you know about that?" He asked, the color draining from his face.

"Aria," she said as if it was an obvious answer to a dumb question.

"Oh, well, there was something, or at least, I assumed there was something, but apparently Cedric Diggory is more important," He said scowling.

"Oh, is that why you're wearing a Potter sweatshirt?"

"Yeah, please don't tell me you actually think I was doing it because I supported Harry? He's a nice guy and all, but Hufflepuff _needs_ this, we've not have any glory in centuries!"

"So you're wearing a Potter sweatshirt because you're jealous of Cedric because Eloise is more interested in him than you?"

"No, well yes, yes, I'm jealous of Ced, but I'm wearing the Potter sweatshirt because I want Eloise to realize I'm independent from her."

"What? I'm confused!"

"Okay, Eloise and I were dating, but then she got interested in Cedric because he's the Hogwarts champion, and I got really jealous because it seemed like she wanted Cedric to ask her to the dance, and we got in a fight in the common room and broke up, and I've been trying to get her back for a while now, but it's not working," She recognized this story, and for the first time in a while, she laughed. She burst out laughing and laughed until tears were falling down her cheeks.

"Are you seriously laughing at me?" He asked.

"No, no, no, absolutely not! It's just that, oh God, are all guys this clueless?" She asked.

"I'm sorry?" He asked.

"No, no never mind, you just, no, you don't need to know, oh, that's rich, oh, where's mum meeting us?"

"Entrance hall, she says you can apparate on your own if you'd like,"

The familiar tightening sensation of apparition encompassed Cynthia, and as soon as it disappeared and she opened her eyes she recognized her house, but it was covered in an awning and with black lace surrounding it. Her heart sank and she was hugged tightly by her sister.

Sitting in her and her sister's old room was a comfort to Cynthia. She pulled a pillow into her lap and her sister asked, levitating a charm from her charm bracelet idly, "So how's George?"

"He's fine, he and Fred have been making good money off of bets for the Triwizard tournament,"

"Oh that's nice, has he been treating you okay?"

"Well, besides being a giant git over the whole Yule Ball thing, yeah, he's been really supportive, even though I've been really cold towards him lately,"

"Oh, right, and he's not pressuring you into anything, is he?" Patti asked, eyeing her younger sister. For a girl of only 25, Patti did seem infinitely more mature.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, into that, you know?" She said, dodging the word.

"Oh, no! No! No! You know Fred has, with his on/off girlfriend Angelina, and I can just tell George is really jealous, but no, he's not really said anything about that,"

"That's really sweet of him, Zak used to tell me how hard it is for guys, being pressured into that sort of stuff," she made the charm jump, and then twirled it gently, "Do you think you two will ever get married?" She asked in a daydreamy sort of voice.

"I don't think I'll ever get to my NEWTs, thanks."

"Oh but seriously, Cyn, you've been dating for what, a year and a half now?"

"Two years on December tenth," she muttered.

"Alright then, do you think?"

"I don't know! I'm only seventeen! And besides, his birthday isn't for another month and six days!"

"So? Zak and I knew in year 5, and look at us now!" Cynthia sighed, she wasn't going to win this, "I don't even know if I want a wedding, after seeing how much mum freaked out over the price of yours and everything about it, I don't think I want to get married, I'm terrified of what she'll do!"

"Oh come now, she wasn't that bad at my wedding, sure she overreacted to a few things, but she wasn't terrible."

"She set your dress on fire because she didn't like the design of the beads," Cynthia said, raising her eyebrow.

"Well, that was unavoidable really."

"She tossed the cake out the window."

"Oh I forgot about that,'' Patti said, looking up at the ceiling.

"And she called Zak's mum an ignorant whore because she wanted the bridesmaids dresses to be slightly shorter."

"She did?"

"Yeah, I thought you knew."

"No, I didn't." She said through gritted teeth.

Dressed in a black pencil skirt, black button up and black blazer, complete with a black pill-box hat, Cynthia stood in front of the full length mirror in her room, pulling on black suede high heels over her tights. She had not cried yet, and she wasn't planning on it. As soon as the service was over, she was going to change, apparate into Hogsmeade and then make her way back up to the castle. Danny would come with their mother on Monday, Cyn felt no need to stay here, she always hated her house anyways, never really calling it home.

The memorial was sad, but not once did she cry. Relatives came to her and told her how grown up she was, and several of the older and more persnickety ones told her it was a shame she never turned out as pretty as her older sister. The more down-to-earth older ones said that that was unfair to say, as Patti had really only become beautiful as a young adult, and Cynthia was perfectly beautiful now. Either way, she didn't care, she wanted to get out. Her father wasn't even there anyways, her mother had already buried him two days perviously, and this was just a memorial.

As the sun slowly started falling in the sky, Cyn ran to her old bedroom, changed into her jeans and sweatshirt, and disapparted, not bothering to say good-bye to her mother. Her walk up to the school from Hogsmeade was quiet and calming, and once she reached the gates, she needed only to wait for five minutes for Professor McGonagall to fetch her. McGonagall said very few words to her, only did her usual half smile, said good evening to her, and allowed her in, her sweeping cloak nearly tripping Cynthia up as they silently walked into the castle.

Up in the Gryffindor common room, the noise level was louder than it'd be in a while, and she was embraced by Mathilda, who pulled her into a seat by the fireplace. "Did you read the Prophet this morning?" She asked, a very urgent tone in her voice.

"No, I was slightly pre-occupied, uh, do you mind if I go say hi to George and Fred?"

"Rudolphus Lestrange broke out of Azkaban, and the ministry thinks him and Sirius Black are in league now. Moody and Dumbledore were fighting about it this morning at breakfast, it got pretty intense, Moody wants to train all of us better curses, and focus more on the Dark Arts, but Dumbledore wants him to focus on defensive magic. It got pretty heated but McGonagall calmed them both down. It was insane, the angriest I've ever seen Dumbledore."

"Great, tell me more in a second." She stood up and made her way towards George and Fred, who were talking to Ron, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. "You're not still taking the mick out of him for that whole dancing thing, are you?" She said loudly as she stood behind Fred, who jumped, "Well you're easy to scare." She deadpanned.

"Bye Ronniekins," they both said in unison, as George practically tackle-hugged her.

"I'm not doing that to you, don't expect it," Fred said after George had let her go, upon hearing her threaten to hex him if she fainted.

"No problems there." She said snarkily.

"Well you're in a much better mood," George said, scrutinizing her face.

"Yeah, I realized that spending less than a day with my family is a lot worse than being here."

"And why's that?" Fred asked.

"They can't possibly be worse than us." George said, an evil grin on his face.

"Because if I have to hear myself compared to Patti one more time, I'm going to scream," she said angrily, "Oh you know by the time Patti was your age she was already engaged! Oh gosh, Patti was so beautiful when she was seventeen, but I'm sure you'll come along, dear. It's amazing that Patti was able to plan a wedding _and_ still get top-marks on her NEWTs, but I'm sure you'll do okay on your NEWTs. Oh you know Patti's just gotten invited to have dinner with this exclusive society? You'll get there one day, Cynthia.

Oh Cynthia, you remember how sweet Zak was when he was your age, remember how they got engaged then? Oh and how's your boyfriend doing?" She said, imitating various family members' voices, "Ugh! I absolutely can't stand it! I'm sorry I'm not pretty-little angel Mrs. Patricia Linda Harrison, I'm sorry I forget it was completely normal to get married while you're still at school!" She threw herself dramatically down onto the sofa.

"Patti got married while she was at school? I don't remember that." Fred said seeming pretty interested, what a change.

"Yeah, but I didn't know you then, actually I didn't know anyone then, I was still terrified of talking to any of you," she said running her hands through her hair.

"Oh right, oh, I remember how much Fred, Lee and I used to make fun of you in class," George said.

"Thanks, that's really uplifting that is."

"Well at least I'm not lying and sugarcoating it!" He said defensively.

"True, but not great timing on your part. So I take it, judging by the lack of Hufflepuff hatred in this room, Harry won the last challenge?"

"Nah, Ced won, but Harry got awarded second for moral fiber." George said.

"And who did they all have to bring up?"

"Well, Fleur Delacouer was supposed to bring up her sister Gabrielle or Grace or something, Harry brought up Ron. Cedric brought up Cho, and Krum brought up Hermione,"Fred answered.

"Hermione Granger?" Cynthia asked, very shocked.

"The very same,"

"No kidding, they went to the Yule Ball together, didn't they?" Both twins nodded, and Cynthia sat back on the couch stretching her arms out above her.

"You're still single, are you not?" Zacharias Smith, the Hufflepuff chaser, asked Cynthia at breakfast. "What difference does it make?" She asked loosening her tie. "Well you're not with that Weasley, are you?"

"As a matter of fact, I am, and anyways, you're a bit young for me," she said, turning back to her cereal, as Fred laughed and hit his brother.

"Were you really going to ask her out?" George asked, looking genuinely concerned.

"No, absolutely not, no, no, um, no, her brother told me to ask for him, besides, she's scottish, not of the Scots are good looking here, it's all about the irish." He stormed away, and Cyn choked on her cereal as George said to his twin, "Methinks he doth protest too much,".

"What did he say about Scots not being good looking?" Outraged, she sent the Hufflepuff table an angry glare.

"It's bullshit, everyone thinks Oliver Wood is good looking, don't they?" George deadpanned.

"Thanks, what am I doing to get all this kindness lately?" She said sarcastically.

"What? I thought you were english!" George deadpanned yet again.

"You're lucky you never met my dad, he'd've skinned you alive for that comment, and you're very lucky I'm not!"

"Brother, I think you've just been threatened by a girl half your size," Fred said, his eyes still on Cynthia.

"Indeed I have, think she'll keep her word on it?"

"I don't think she will, George."

"Right, bugger off you too, now if you'll excuse me, we have an exam in transfiguration we have to study for, and I'd rather like to _pass_ it."

Sitting at as desk in the library, Cynthia groaned as a girl of Beauxbaton girls giggled and swarmed around some Hufflepuff boys, she couldn't tell who they were, with the girls constantly in her field of view. Several times Madam Pince hushed them, but moments later they were back to their same volume. Unable to concentrate, Cynthia shut her book and stormed up to the common room. What a waste of her free period.

She grabbed her bag from her bed and started heading down towards Transfiguration, calming herself for the test. Slowly reviewing everything she needed to know in her head, she slipped into the classroom, several minutes early, and sat at her desk, pulling out her textbook and reviewing more.

The exam was surprisingly easy, as were most exams for Cynthia, so it shouldn't really have been surprising. But the look of anger on Mathilda's face as she walked out of class nearly made Cyn cry of laughing. "That hard?" She asked as they walked through the transfiguration courtyard.

"Oh please tell me you at least struggled." She waited a moment to reply and then said, bursting into a grin, "Terribly hard, couldn't understand two words of it."

"You're horrible," Mathilda said, shoving her hard.

The days until June twenty-fourth, the day of the final task, slowly ticked away, and April came and passed, with a small birthday party for the twins in the common room. The day of the final task was a bittersweet one, as it was the last day of school, and everyone was excited for the task, but sad to leave their friends.

Dressing in red and gold, and painting red and gold streaks on her face, Cynthia sighed and looked at the dorm room around her. Everyone had packed up their stuff, and nothing was on the walls.

But it wasn't until she was walking out to the quidditch pitch hand-in-hand with George that she felt truly sad. "Last year is our last year, isn't it?" She asked rhetorically, admiring the grounds like she hadn't since her first year.

"Yeah, no real loss though, is it?" He said, and his twin nodded in agreement.

"How can you not feel sad at all? We've spent nearly seven years here!"

"Oh don't you get all sappy on me! It's just school!"

"Well that's easier for you to say, you actually liked your home!" She said defensively.

"What d'you mean?"

"Oh I hate my house! With my mum skulking about back there. Silly old bat," she said shaking her head angrily as they climbed up the newly-added bleachers on the quidditch pitch. Both Fred and George looked equally shocked and angry when they saw the twenty foot high hedges that were all across the pitch.

The Hogwarts band started playing, and the champions ran out onto the field. Roars came from the Gryffindors as Harry ran out onto the field, and George and Fred tossed red sparklers into the air.

Dumbledore made the usual speech about what the task was, how Cedric and Harry would be going first, and that eternal glory awaited them at the end. Rolling her eyes as the twins yelled loudly after Harry who was walking slowly into the maze, she pulled out a book. "Are you really bloody reading?" George asked, sitting down after Harry's form disappeared in the hedges. "Look, we're going to be here for hours, might as well do something useful."

"You're insane, you know that? Insane."

"Thanks," She said sharply, redirecting her attention to the book.

The sun rose in the sky and ran it's course, and soon the sun was setting over Hogwarts. after around four-thirty, Fleur Delacouer was brought out of the maze, to the disappointment, and in some cases, horror, of the Beauxbatons students. As five o'clock drew nearer, several bangs were heard from over in the castle, but for the most part they were ignored, with people just assuming they were coming from Hogsmeade, or reporters coming to get the story.

When the clock struck five-thirty, there were louder bangs, and they lasted longer. Much longer, some of them lasting several minutes. All eyes were on Dumbledore and McGonagall, who were talking hurriedly behind the Gryffindor side of the bleachers. This action was enough to force Cynthia to put away her book, which was actually her second of the day. Craning her neck to see, like the rest of the house, she tried to understand what the two teachers were saying, but was at a complete loss.

It wasn't until Madame Maxime started gathering all her students together, and taking them to their carriage, that the Hogwarts students started worrying.


	4. Blasts

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed and added me as a favorite author/favorite story or tracked this. It means so, so much. Hope this chapter doesn't let you down. **

"What's going on?" Cynthia asked George, who not only had a height advantage, but was now also on his feet. "I don't know, I can't see anything. The Beauxbatons girls-er, students are in their carriage though," He said, brushing hair out of his face.

"Hogwarts students, please stay in your seats, and do not move until you are directed to do so." Dumbledore's voice boomed out as Karkaroff followed Madame Maxime's lead and took his students towards their ship.

"What? What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Cynthia shrieked jumping to her feet trying to get a better look, she was not alone in this action, people all across the houses did this same.

"What was that?"

"Did you see that light?"

"Why'd the all leave?"

"Are they going to tell us ANYTHING?" Questions chorused out across the stands and nearly everyone was standing now.

"Gryffindor students please sit down now!" Professor McGonagall called out across the red wave of students. But no one listened, everyone was focused on black smoke-like funnels crossing the Hogwarts grounds at lightning fast speeds, faster than even Harry Potter's firebolt.

"What's that?" Someone screamed, and then a red flash split the air and several Ravenclaw girls dived out of the way, and the smoke solidified into masked, hooded figures. Then the screams began.

There was movement, and more screaming, and soon people were running out of the stands, before teachers could even attempt to calm them. It wasn't long until the hooded figures began shooting spells off everywhere, and Cynthia felt a hand grabs hers and tug it up. "PREFECTS, TAKE ALL THE STUDENTS THAT ARE NOT OF AGE BACK TO THE CASTLE." Multiple teachers were screaming this, leaving all the of-age students pulling their wands out. But it wasn't quick enough, several younger students were hit by stunning spells, and Cynthia's wand was out before she even consciously recognized that one of those students was Danny. "Stupefy!" Multiple people screamed at once, all missing their targets. And that was it, the hooded figures, who Cynthia instantly recognized as Death Eaters, were off into the maze, running, going up into those smoke like apparitions.

She was on her feet, jumping down the stands trying to get into the maze, she'd followed the one who hit Danny with the stunning spell, and was now running after him. Into the maze she went, and she was thoroughly surprised there weren't any spells keeping non-champions out of the maze. She ran, following a loud cackle, left, then right, another right, and left again. Into a clearing, where a woman was standing laughing. "Ooh, brought a boyfriend?" She giggled and Cyn looked behind her, Fred had followed her in. "No, funny story actually, she's dating my brother, so that wouldn't be the greatest thing for me to do, would it? Expelliarmus!" He yelled but she blocked it. "Oh he's a cute young thing, inn's?" She giggled again, and seemed for a moment almost as deranged as Bellatrix Lestrange. "Cruico!" She said in a girlish voice and Fred fell to the ground. She twisted her wand and Fred yelled out in pain.

"No! Stop it! Stop it now!" Cynthia screamed and a twig snapped behind her, she turned to look behind her, teary eyed, and George pulled out his wand, yelling a spell, but she couldn't recognize what he was saying, she was too busy screaming at the Death-Eater to stop. The woman blocked every single one of George's spells. "CRUCIO!" Cynthia screamed, letting every ounce of anger fill her insides, burning them, melting them even, blaming her father's death on this woman helped. The woman fell to the ground, her wand losing contact with Fred who rolled over, his face cut up and muddy. The woman's laughter was replaced with shrieks, and Cynthia started moving towards her, her feet heavy on the grassy floor, her wand not losing face with the screaming woman. Cynthia was now so close she could see every wrinkle in the death-eaters green eyes.

"Cynthia!" Someone yelled her name. "Cynthia!" She looked away, her tyrant over this woman finished. George was looking at her, with a terrified yet proud look in his eyes. "Go, let's get out," He said, then nodded towards Fred who was still on the ground, and Cynthia grabbed him under his right arm, pull him upwards. Together, they pulled Fred out of the clearing, but stopped when they still heard screams and yells. Cynthia and George looked at each other. "Stay here, stay with Fred, I'll be right back," the tears had returned to her eyes, and she shook her head, biting hard on her lip, "No, no, you stay here, I need to get Danny, and- when Fred wakes up, he'll want to see you, not me," She said, setting Fred gently against a bush. "Oh yes, I'm sure he'll want to see _my_ ugly face." He said, forcing a smile.

"It's his own, and he seems to think pretty damned highly of it."

"Nah, I reckon I'm still better looking than he's," Fred said lightly, and they both looked at him, breaking out into equally large smiles.

"You feeling okay, Freddie?" George asked, and Cynthia took this moment to run, she stood up, pulled her wand out, and ran, ignoring the protesting yells of George.

She was back out into the stadium, and spells were lighting it up in the blackness of the night. "Professor!" She yelled at McGongall, who was backing towards the hedges. "There's one in the maze, and she got Fred Weasley with the cruciatus." McGonagall looked at Cynthia, her wand still pointed at a burly Death-Eater.

"Sutton, take this one," and Cynthia nodded, screaming a stunning spell at the Death-Eater. He blocked it, sending it back her way as McGonagall ran into the maze. "Petrificus Totalus!" She yelled, sending the Death-Eater thudding to the ground. She forced her way through the crowd dodging spells.

A bone-shattering scream broke the air, and then, in the same manner they had arrived, all the hooded figures disappeared. A scene of utter destruction was seen across the field, and Cynthia searched across the petrified and stunned students. There, lying in between the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor stands was the tall, skinny brunette boy. She started running towards them, and five feet away, she tripped over something, and landed three feet away from him. Using her elbows to drag herself along the earth, she pulled herself up towards Danny. She wiped dirt away from his face, and trembling, pulled her wand towards his face, "_Ennervate_," she muttered and wiped a tear away from her face using her shoulder. Danny stirred, and she pulled her sweatshirt off, putting it under his head pushing it several inches off the ground.

She pulled Danny's shirt collar closer to his face, trying to warm his face as the night chilled. He stirred and slowly awoke. and looked around. "I'm bloody cold, what the hell happened?"

"Watch your language little boy," Cynthia said, helping Danny up, "Is your head alright?" He reached up and touched the back of his head.

"Yeah, you've still not explained what happened though," He said picking up Cyn's sweatshirt and handing it to her. "If I knew, I'd tell you, now come with me," She pulled him in closer hugging his arm and pulled him towards the maze. While he was out, she kept checking to see if either McGonagall, George, or Fred had come out of the maze. There'd been no sign of him, and as she pulled Danny into the the maze, she felt her heart beating in her throat.

"Why the hell are we going in there?" Danny asked.

"What time is it?"

"Quarter till. Shouldn't the champions be back now?"

"I don't know, now hurry up," She jerked his arm, and knew she wasn't being far on him, but pulled him in towards the maze.

She followed the same way she'd been before, and on the third turn, she found George and Professor McGonagall crouching over Fred. "Is he okay?" She asked, letting go of Danny and crouching down next to Fred.

"He'll be fine," McGonagall said, standing up. She looked up into the sky, and red sparks appeared in the sky. "That'll be one of the champions, I shall go recover them, in the meantime, get back up to the castle and stay in the common room, we will be recovering the champions, I'm sure." She hurried away in the maze, expertly navigating the maze. "You ready to get up?" George asked his twin, pulling him up, and Danny ran over to help. George nodded at him and together they heaved Fred upwards. There was blood trickling from his left ear.

Pulling Fred up to the castle wasn't' as hard as Cynthia assumed it would be, Fred started walking about halfway up the grounds, and the remaining people started their way up to the castle as well, the champion who shot the red sparks up being Fleur Delacouer, who was quickly taken over to the Beauxbatons carriage. The Gryffindor common room was abuzz, but not in the way that it was after a successful quidditch match, people were talking angrily, questioning everything, muttering angrily, some girls were wondering what would happen to the champions.

They helped put Fred down on the couch after George yelled at some of the first years to get up. Fred argued about sitting down, saying he was fine, but Cynthia said she'd curse him if he moved, so he sat quietly. Seconds later, McGonagall hurried into the room,"Student, please form an orderly line, we will be returning to the stadium, to receive that champions." Everyone stood up, and quickly got into a jumbled sort of line. "Professor, what happened down there? Were those Death-Eaters?" Hermione Granger asked, the name 'Harry' that was once scrawled across her face in paint was now smudged and smeared.

"Professor Dumbledore will be explaining tomorrow before we all depart." McGonagall said, more to the group than to Hermione individually.

As they were trudging out across the fields, Cynthia looked hurriedly across towards the quidditch pitch. "Who do you think won?" She asked, stumbling down a small hill. "It's going to be either Ced or Harry, I don't think Krum would have managed it. He's a great quidditch player, but he's nothing too bright is he?" George said as they once again found their seats on the stands. "Really? You think Harry'd have beaten Krum? I donno, he's only fourteen, isn't he? I don't think he could've gotten through, I'm just worried he's hurt!" She said, biting at the skin around her nails.

There was a flash of blue light, and everyone stood up and began screaming, both Harry and Cedric were back. The Hogwarts band started playing, and Cynthia didn't bother asking how they'd gotten set up so fast. Cheers erupted, and applause thundered through the stadium. Then, the teachers were around Harry, and there were screams, but of terror. Fred and George were already down there, trying to pull Harry off, who had tears streaming down his face.

She realized what it was as soon as Cho Chang started shaking uncontrollably. Cedric Diggory was dead. Harry was now screaming, "He's back! Voldemort's back!" She was frozen where she stood, and she wasn't the only one. No one moved, no one spoke. Amos Diggory was running down, with Arthur Weasley, who Cynthia hadn't realized was there. Harry was being tugged away towards the castle. Cedric Diggory was dead. It seemed as though the world had stopped. Ministry officials were running down towards Cedric. Cynthia moved forward, tripping down some of the stairs, but picking herself up. Cedric Diggory was dead. She ran towards George now. Cedric Diggory was dead. George wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she looked on in horror. Cedric Diggory was dead.

She remembered all the DADA classes they'd had when he'd comforted her while George writhed on the ground in pain. Cedric Diggory was dead. She saw Cho Chang sobbing next to his body. Cedric Diggory was dead. Cedric Diggory was dead.

Cedric Diggory was dead. Despite the attack on the same night. All anyone could think about was Cedric. And as they all dressed in their robes for the final time, no one spoke. It was silent throughout Hogwarts. The quietest it had ever been. And when they sat in the Great Hall, many people's tear stained faces were on the floor. Including Cynthia. She sat in the back of the hall, away from Cho Chang. She held Mathilda's hand, and there were dark rings under both girls' eyes. Mathilda had been crying all night, and as her best friend, and the only true friend in her dorm, she'd taken the night duty and stayed up, calming her. Fred and George sat up towards the front.

Dumbledore made a speech. He told them that the ministry did not want them to know He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was back. He spoke of house unity, but Cynthia heard none of this. Mathilda was silently sobbing into her shoulder, practically soaking her robes through. Cynthia felt Mathilda shaking against her arm, and she felt nothing but sorry for her. She couldn't even fathom what it would be like to lose George. To have a whole other part of her simply torn out, never to return. To have a sudden blackness where there had once been so much light. So much joy, so much happiness.

Soon, Cynthia's own tears fell. They were sympathy tears for Mathilda, who would now have a part of her missing. But the thought of losing George tore at her inside. If there was going to be a war, like Dumbledore speculated, she wouldn't let George go. She couldn't think of what it would be like.

Before she could even ponder more on these topics, they were being ushered out of the Great Hall, and everyone was hugging each other goodbye. She found her way over to the Durmstrang groups, after leaving Mathilda in the capable hands of Aria. She searched through the crowd and found the face she was searching for, she ran up to him, "Hello Yohan!" She said, hugging him tightly, "Do write to me, I'd love to keep in touch." She said as she released him.

"I vill keep in touch. Vhere should I send it to?" He asked, and Cynthia handed him a ripped piece of parchment. It had her name simply written on it in longhand, and she beamed at him. Hugging him again, she waved and headed back off to the crowd of Gryffindors near the bridge that took them to the hill which lead to Hogsmeade.

"Did you say goodbye to Yohan, then?" George asked, and Cyn rolled her eyes. "Yes, I did, and we're going to go off to Bulgaria to get married, mind you."

"You're joking?" George deadpanned.

"Nope, you should've made your move!" She said, shaking her head sadly.

"Oh bugger it, let's go get married than?" George said, grabbing her hand.

"Oh yes, I'm sure that'll go down well with my mum, she's always wanted me to run off with a strange ginger with an obvious height advantage on me,"

"Funny, my mum always wanted me to marry an english girl," Cynthia stopped in her tracks and pushed his hand off her shoulder.

"I'm offended." She crossed her arms mock-angrily, and as they walked down to the carriages that would take them to Hogsmeade station, she deliberately slammed her trunk into George's heels.

On the train, Cynthia excused herself to go sit with Aria and Mathilda, still trying to cheer her up. Around an hour into the train ride, Eddie Carmichael, Aria's boyfriend, came in and sat down next to her. "Mathilda, if it's any comfort, I heard some Ravenclaws talking about you saying you were pretty an' all," Mathilda gave a half smile and continued staring out the window.

The buildings of London came in what seemed like a quick time, while the darkness sank upon them. The train had been full of chatter about the attack on Hogwarts, and Cynthia was sure that it would have made that day's Daily Prophet. But as she disembarked the train, and grabbed her trunk. She was soon faced with another challenge. She was to be going home with the Weasleys, and she was forever thankful she would not be going home to her mother.

She hugged Mathilda and Aria tightly, and soon slipped away into the crowd, finding the ginger family with ease. "Oh hello dear! Ginny's just told us about what happened last night! I'm horrified it didn't make the news! Have you written home?" Mrs. Weasley asked, after embracing her.

"Oh-er, yeah! Yeah, I've written home, my mum's fine though, I reckon she's sad that I wasn't Cedric," Mrs. Weasley looked at her confused for a second and said, "I'm sure that's not true,dear." Cynthia actually laughed out at this, "Oh no, she told me so in her letter." And it's true, she had, she'd explicitly told her that for Amos Diggory's sake, that Cynthia had been Cedric. To this, Mrs. Weasley gave a concerned look, and both the twins sniggered, and Cyn shot them a broad smile.

Hermione Granger had joined them as well, and instead of going to OtterySt. Catchpole, where the Burrow was, they turned further into Central London, past Oxford Street and to a street called Grimmauld place. Once they had finished the walk there, they stood next to a fence, and Mrs. Weasley handed a paper to Ginny. "Alright Ginny, look at that and memorize it." Soon everyone had seen the note, which read: _The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is at 12 Grimmauld Place, London._

Cynthia had heard of the Order of the Phoenix before, her mother had been in it back when You-Know-Who had been power for the first time.

As they all walked through the door, Cyn surprised a gasp. The escaped murderer Sirius Black looked back at her, and Cynthia held her hand tightly on her wand. "Hello Sirius," The twins said in unison, and Ginny smiled. Shocked, she felt someone tug on her arm.

"Mum, we'll be upstairs, and we'll show Cyn her room," George said, and he turned on the spot.

"Was that necessary?" She asked, once the apparation sensation had finished. "No, but it's fun. Anyways, you're sleeping in here with Ginny and Hermione, and we're upstairs." She nodded and put her suitcase down. "So, should I ask why you calmly said 'hello' to a convicted mass murder?" She sat down on the bed and looked between Fred and George.

"Well, he's not."

"He was convicted."

"Yeah but wrongly," Fred said

"It was actually Ron's rat,"

"Who was really an animagus,"

"Named Peter Pettigrew,"

"And he framed Sirius."

"Then he turned into an animagus for thirteen years."

"And came back last year after Sirius and Professor Lupin called him out,"

"Professor Lupin?" Cyn asked shocked.

"Yeah, him, Sirius, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter, Harry's dad, were the Marauders, you know the ones that made our map,"

"And Peter Pettigrew betrayed Harry's parents to You-Know-Who,"

"So yeah," George said, sitting beside Cyn.

"Wow." She said, mulling over the information,"So, what're we going to do this summer then?" She said, laying back on the bed, keeping her legs firmly on the floor.

"Dunno, if mum lets us, we can go explore London I s'pose, not sure if it'll be fun, there's no where to play any quidditch, which sucks."

"Yes, that's what you would be concerned with, not the fact that there are loads of interesting museums and historical sites." They both groaned, and she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, we wanna go do that," Fred said sarcastically, and a thumping noise came up the stairs.

"Oi, you three, dinner," Ron said, poking his head through the door and nodding down.

"Alright Ronniekins," Fred said.

"You're soo nice to your poor brother." Cynthia said, rolling over to face George who was still laughing. Fred scoffed and turned out of the room, obviously still waiting on the landing, there was no way he was going to walk down those stairs. George propped himself up on his elbow, and leaned into her, his lips slightly grazing hers, and then he jumped up.

"Food," was all he said, then he practically jumped out of the room, and several seconds and a loud crack later, he was down for dinner. Cynthia took her time going down, listening to the creaking of every old stair.

Moments later, the smell of roast chicken ensnared her, and she was immediately offering help to Mrs. Weasley, who quickly turned it down.

As she changed into her nightdress, she heard a cracking on the landing. Hermione and Ginny were down in Ron's room, as Mrs. Weasley was letting them stay up later than night. "We're coming in, don't scar me," Fred said, as he pushed open the door. But Cyn was already sitting on her bed, putting socks on. "You know you wouldn't be scarred," she said airily.

"For the pure fact that my brother is in here right now, I'm going to have to say I would be," he winked and she laughed. George sat down on the bed and Cynthia leaned forward. Fred threw himself down on Hermione's bed and Cyn watched him.

Fred decided to go down and annoy Ron, and winking at his brother, left the room, shutting the door behind him. Before George had the chance to turn around, Cyn pulled him up towards her, put her hands on his face, and kissed him roughly. He pulled himself up, and flipped her over, so her head was on the pillow. She could tell he'd locked the door and put a silencing charm on it, as he threw his wand to the other bed. Their hands were everywhere: hair, body, face, it was all a flurry.

Heavy footsteps came up the floor, and George quickly jumped up, undid the spells he did on the door, winked at Cyn, and disapparted, possibly down to Ron's room, leaving Cynthia to pull on her dressing gown, throw herself under the covers, and extinguished the lamp.

The morning light shone through the blinds, and Cynthia slowly got up, her back aching. She slowly slid into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and was soon halfway down the stairs, offering to help make breakfast. ''Oh, dear, if you'll just get the bacon going, we're going to have some of the Order here for breakfast." Smiling while she nodded, Cynthia flicked her wand and started the bacon up.

"Do you mind asking your mother if she'd like to rejoin the Order?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Sure. Uh, sorry, I don't mean to intrude amongst things I shouldn't be, but why is the Order restarting again?" She leaned against the counter, looking at the dusty cabinets.

"Ah. Well, rem, that's interesting. Uh, Professor Dumbledore told us, that on the night Cedric Diggory died, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named returned," Cynthia nodded.

"Yeah, he told us that. But, why would the Order start up now? I mean, if he's being intelligent about it, he'd wait, build up the past splits. Obviously, the Ministry isn't going to want to press this, but Harry and Dumbledore are, so that would cause splits between us all. So he'll wait, won't he? Let it rise, maybe there will be a few disappearances, a few deaths, or, a few more, that is. He wants terror doesn't he? Isn't that the smartest way to go?" She pushed hair out of her face.

"That was a very astute observation, Cynthia," Remus Lupin said, standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

"Oh! Hello Professor!" She said brightly, as brightly as she could at eight in the morning.

"How are you, Remus?" Mrs. Weasley said, sending a cup of tea over to a seat on the long wooden table.

"I've been better, I've definitely been better." He said, sitting at the seat and picking up the cup.

Loud thuds came from upstairs, and minutes later, Ron came down, followed by Fred, and then George, who looked like he'd slept on the floor, his hair was a mess. Suppressing a giggle, Cyn helped put the food out, and a short minute later, Hermione and Ginny came down. Eventually, Mrs. Weasley forced Cynthia to sit down to eat, so she did, slowly eating, not entirely hungry. "Are you going to tell me what happened two nights ago?" Lupin said, drinking tea.

"Er. What do you want to know?" Ginny asked, looking very uncomfortable.

"Well, did the Death-Eaters attack students, for starters, I suppose?"

"Uh, yeah." Ron said, then continued shoveling eggs into his mouth. Mrs. Weasley looked horrified.

"And did either of you get hurt?" Cyn and George looked at each other, then at Fred.

"What was that?" Lupin asked, looking between them.

"What do you mean?" Fred asked, looking completely serious.

"Oh, come now, I was friends with Sirius and James, you don't think I would ever have missed a look like that, do you?" George chuckled, and Cynthia's eyes glazed over and she fell into a daze.

"Fred had the cruciatus put on him." George said, looking at his food, as if it were art work, and knowing George, he probably through it was. Mrs. Weasley slammed her teacup down on the table, shaking it thoroughly. "What?" She shrieked, and all the non-gingers at the table, looked away. "When were you going to tell me?" She sad shrilly, and at that exact moment, Mr. Weasley, and Sirius came into the room, looking like they'd been working very hard on something not very safe.

"What have they done this time?" Sirius asked, sitting at the table. She seemed to ignore this, and looked between her children.

"So? When were you planning on telling me?"

"Honestly mum, we didn't want to worry you." Ron said, and the twins nodded.

"You. Weren't. Planning. On. Telling. Me?" She said through clenched teeth.

"It's fine, mum, it's fine," Fred said, grabbing toast.

"Yeah, Cyn got the Death-Eater though, I think it was Alecto Carrow, I remember her from the posters." George said, and Cyn started tugging at a thread on her sweater.

"What do you mean?" Mrs. Weasley asked, still staring down her children.

"Well, she took her down, didn't she?" Fred said, and Cynthia shifted uncomfortably in her seat, her gaze still down on her sweater.

"You dueled with her, Cynthia?" Mrs. Weasley asked, and Cyn slowly looked up at her.

"Uh, yeah, I suppose so," she said looking at her hands.

"How exactly did you beat her?" Lupin asked her, watching her face,"No, no, tell me exactly what happened."

"Um. Well, they sort of came, and it was a bit confusing, and the teachers had all the under-age students get out, and I saw my brother, and as he was leaving, a woman in a cloak hit him with a stunning spell and he was knocked out. And you know, I was angry, I don't like it when people mess with my family, er, so I chased after her, and she went into the maze, which was surprising, you'd think they'd have some spell on it so you can't get in, but anyways, I went it, and sort of followed her into this clearing type thing, and you know, she started taunting me, and then Fred came up behind me, and she put the cruciatus curse on him, and then George came up seconds later, I think, and then I was angry, really angry, and so I put the cruciatus on _her_, and you know. That's it." She said, looking around at the table, and very embarrassed at her inarticulateness.

"You put a full cruciatus on her?" Sirius Black asked, and she nodded, regardless of what George and Fred had explained to her last night, she still felt odd talking to him.

"Oh, Cynthia, that's so sweet of you dear, thank you so much," Mrs. Weasley said, beaming at her.

After breakfast, the twins convinced a very-worried Mrs. Weasley to let the kids go out and walk around London, and soon, they were walking about in a park called Regent's Park, and loads of children screamed and ran about. "Oi, you three, off!" Fred said, and shooed them off. "We'll find you in two hours then?" Ron yelled over his shoulder, and Fred just turned back. "Are you still looking in that bloody book?" He asked, nodding to Cynthia, who had asked Hermione to help her buy a guide book to London.

"Yes, I am, and I think I know we're we should go." She slammed the book close and put it in her bag.

"You're not taking us to any museums are you?" George said, looking genuinely scared.

"No, there's a place, just thirty minutes near here, it's like an outdoor market I suppose," after seeing the look exchanged between the twins, she quickly said, "Or, we can get on the train and go down to this place called Camden Town, if we can figure out how to use it." She dragged them towards the nearest train station, which was called Hyde Park Corner. After some struggle with the machines, they were finally through, and sitting on an underground train.

"Dad would be freaking out over this." George said, as Cyn tried to understand what they were doing.

"Right, okay, I think we get off here," she said, standing up and exiting the train, the twins close behind her.

Camden Town was one of the scariest places Cyn had ever been. There were loads of people with multiple piercings and tattoos and insane clothes and overly high shoes. After making it ten feet down the street, she turned and looked at George, "Do you want to go back?" She asked, and they both nodded, so sliding into one of the alleyways, then disapparated, back to Hyde Park.

"Alright, we've got an hour and a half, what're we going to do?" George asked and Cynthia sat under a tree. "Well, you two shot down what I thought was interesting, so come up with something." She leaned against the tree and pulled the guide book back out of her bag, flipping it open to a page about a place called 'Swiss Cottage'. "Well, I dunno, London's not very interesting is it?" Fred said and Cyn rolled her eyes.

"I'm not going in a bloody boat!" She said as Fred and George dragged her by her arms towards a lake.

"Oh yes you are." Fred said and pulled the tickets out of his pockets, handing them to a man who showed them to a pedalo, and asked Cyn if she was over thirteen. Fred and George laughed loudly as the sat in the front of the boat, and Cyn said to him, "I'm seventeen."

"Can I have some ID?" He asked, looking suspiciously at her.

"I don't carry ID with me! I am seventeen!" She said angrily.

"I'm sorry, but I need so ID, otherwise you're going to need to wear a lifejacket."

"What? Oh, George, tell him I'm seventeen." George recovered from laughing and said, "Mate, she's five months older than we are." The attendant nodded turned away, and Cynthia glowered at the twins who had melted back into laughter.

"Shut it." She said, sitting in the back of the boat.

After they found Ron, Hermione and Ginny, who seemed to have had a bit more fun going around London, they made their way back to Grimmauld Place. When they got in, Mrs. Weasley hurried them upstairs, as the Order of the Phoenix were meeting in the kitchen.

Night fell, and the Order still had not concluded their meeting. Eventually, they heard people leaving, and the first down were George and Fred who apparated, and George grabbed Cyn's hand before he twisted on the spot. They were all introduced to the Order, and Cynthia was shocked to see Dumbledore and Snape, leaving the house. She said nothing about it though, simply staying quiet through dinner, falling into some of her usual trances.

As the weeks slowly passed by, Mrs. Weasley told them all about the arrival of Harry Potter in the coming weeks.

As the anger inside him cooled off from his recent outburst, a knock came on the door. Hermione weakly called out, "Come in!" and the door barely opened and a girl slipped in. Harry recognized her from Hogwarts, she was two years ahead of him. She was short, skinny, but rather curvy, and had long, stomach grazing mahogany hair. She smiled lightly at him, and Hermione took the initiative to introduce them, "Uh Harry, this is Cynt-Cyn Sutton, her mum's a part of the Order, and um, she's George's girlfriend," Right, that's where he recognized her from, from that time before the Yule Ball when she and George had had a row in the common room. She half waved and smiled, "Hi- uh, they're going to be down in about-" A large crack shuttered through the room and Hermione jumped, suddenly flanked by Ron's older brothers, Fred and George. "Never mind then," Cyn said, leaning against the wall.

"Stop doing that!" Hermione said weakly to the twins, who were as vividly-red haired as Ron, though skinnier and much taller.

"Hello, Harry," said George, beaming at him. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out," said Fred, also beaming. "There might be a couple fifty miles away who didn't hear you."

"You two passed your apparition tests, then?" asked Harry grumpily.

"With distinction," said Fred, who was holding what looked like a piece of very long, flesh colored string.

"It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs," said Ron.

"Time is galleons, little brother," said Fred. "Anyway, Harry you're interfering with reception. Extendable Ears," he added in response to Harry's raised eyebrows, holding up the string, which Harry now saw was trailing out onto the landing. "We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs."

"You want to be careful," said Ron, staring at the ear. "If mum sees one of them again…"

"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting they're having," said Fred.

The door opened and a long mane of red hair appeared.

"Oh hello, Harry!" said Ron's younger sister, as Cynthia stepped out of her way, "I thought I heard your voice."

Turning to Fred and George she said, "It's no go with the Extendable Ears, she's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."

"How d'you know?" said George, mooting for Cynthia to come sit next to him on the bed. And she did, tripping over her own feet as she went.

"Tonks taught me how, if you just throw something at it, and if it doesn't make contact, it's got a charm on it," she said, shrugging.

They spent the next thirty minutes filling Harry in on what he'd missed, including the row that Mr. Weasley and Percy had had, and Cynthia watched Harry and Ginny's interaction with great interest, it reminded her of how she and George used to act around each other: awkward but still comfortable, at that stage where they both liked each other, but didn't accept it quite yet, or realize it.

While they walked down to dinner, Cynthia leaned in to George and whispered in his ear, "Has Ginny ever had a crush on Harry?" To this, George actually laughed. "Yeah, probably still does, ever since third year, well our third year, that is, I suppose that's his first year," George said shrugging.

"Huh, okay," Cyn replied biting her lip, beginning to realize that she had been right.

Throughout the whole of dinner, kept glancing over at Cynthia and George, not that this was anything new, she always kept a close on the pair of them during meal times. "So Cyn, have you managed to convince Patti and Zak to join the order?" Bill Weasley asked her.

"Oh um, well I've been trying, and I think Zak said he's willing, but my mum keeps trying to get Patti out of it, what with she's going to be busy with for the next few months, but you know, I'm sure she'll come around. My mum always talked about the Order with loads of pride when I was younger, so she'll have to let Patti later,"

"Doesn't surprise me Zak's going to join, he liked jumping head first into things, I remember that from school. But what's Patti going to be busy with? She's not working again is she?" He asked, his dragon tooth earring dangling dangerously close to his shoulder.

"Oh, oh, I thought I told you. Um, no, she's not working again, she'd like to, but she can't get work anywhere, um, she's actually expecting, they found out about a month ago, I could've sworn I told you lot," Cynthia answered, breaking into a smile.

"That's great! So you're going to be an aunt then?" Cynthia laughed and shook her head.

"Nah, I think Patti's a bit scared of me going off the deep end, especially after last year."

"What do you mean especially after last year?"

"Well, I had no problem putting the cruciatus curse on Alecto Carrow did I? Apparently I looked like I had enjoyed it in a sick way." Cynthia said, sinking back in her chair.

"Well, hadn't she just cursed your brother?" Bill asked, trying to rationalize it.

"Uh, no, she'd just put the cruciatus on Fred, actually, her brother, Amycus cursed Danny," Cynthia said, dropping her voice as she saw Mrs. Weasley look over at them.

"But that's fine though, isn't it? I don't see why Patti would be scared, what're you going to do, curse her kid?"

"Ah, well I also hit that Malfoy kid with a kneecap-reversal hex, but I don't think anyone really knew that was me," she said, breaking some bread.

"That was you?" George asked clearly looking amused.

"You were standing right next to me."

"i thought that was Goyle's hex that rickashayed." Fred said from next to his brother.

"Thanks, now you're demoting me to a troll, thanks you two." Bill laughed and then said,"Well, tell your sister and Zak I say congrats!" He then turned back to Lupin and Tonks who were talking quietly about God only knows what.

"Congrats for what?" Fred asked, watching his mother.

"Ah, well they're, well, she's pregnant, I swear did I not tell any of you? I thought I did."

"Uh, no, you didn't. But that's great! So are you feeling old yet?" Fred asked.

"What do you want?" Cynthia said sighing.

"What do you mean, we don't want anything." George said defensively, but Cyn saw right through it.

"You're being way to nice about this," she said matter-of-factly.

"We don't want anything'-"George started.

"Do you want to test one of our Skiving Snackboxes?" Fred interrupted and got an angry glare from George.

"Uh yeah, alright, as long as they don't kill me, I've got a couple grudges to settle before then," Cynthia said, taking a sip of her butterbeer.

After the dishes had been cleared, Sirius, who Cynthia was still warming up to, asked Harry why he'd not been interrogating anyone and everyone about what's been happening with You-Know-Who and the Order. Soon, Mrs. Weasley was relenting to Sirius and letting Harry stay in the room, but ordering all her kids out. Both Fred and George argued back, and Lupin vouched for them, but she made sure Ron and Ginny were out, until Harry told Ron he'd tell him everything. Anger clearly on Mrs. Weasley's face, she let Ron stay, so Ginny argued back as well.

"No! Ginny! Upstairs! NOW!" She yelled at her only daughter. Deciding to ease the tension, Cynthia stood up and said to Ginny, "Come on Ginny, let's go upstairs, you don't need to hear this stuff at your age," Ginny shot her an angry look, but Cyn silently pleaded for her to come up, and so they did. Walking in silence up the creaky old stairs. When they reached the room they were sharing with Hermione, Ginny shut the door and turned on Cynthia, "You're not honestly going to keep me from hearing that, are you?"

"Are you kidding me? No!" She said, pulling out an extendable ear from her pillow case.

"Where'd you get that?" Ginny asked, suspiciously.

"Your brother gave it to me."

"Why?" She asked. As far as she was concerned, Ginny did not know her and George were together, which was a remarkable feat, considering how quickly gossip spread at Hogwarts.

"I dunno, s'pose he wanted me to have it, she said, walking to the door, opening it, and tossing it over the railing, then retreating back in.

"Don't they have the imperturbable charm on it?" She asked.

"Nope, didn't you see Fred take it off while George cleaned up the mess they made?"

"Oh that's what he was doing!" She said, inching closer to the ear to hear what was being said.

Ten minutes later there was a loud crack and Cynthia screamed, only to have her mouth covered quickly. "Dammit you two!" She had after she had recovered her breath.

"Mum told us to tell you to go to bed, and 'Mione should be coming up in a moment," Fred said to the both of them.

"See you in the morning," George said, and Cynthia caught his wink before they both vanished with a loud CRACK. Seconds after the doors opened and Hermione whisked in.

"What'd they tell him?" Cynthia asked Hermione as she pulled a nightdress out of the drawer she was sharing with her and Ginny.

"Nothing really knew, You-Know-Who's apparently trying to get a weapon, something they think we have, but they don't really know what it is. They think Voldemort's been quiet because Harry messed it up for him, that You-Know-Who was supposed to kill him last year" She sighed, and Cynthia walked to the adjoining bathroom to change quickly, before coming out, and pulling out a book. Just as she opened it, Mrs. Weasley popped her head in the door, "Night girls, in the morning we should be working on the doxies I found earlier today." She seemed to be less angry than she was at dinner, but shot Ginny an angry look as she closed the door.

She slowly got dressed in the morning, she was awake before everyone else, as usual. She'd been waking extremely early that summer, around six in the morning on good days. However, the smell of breakfast was already wafting up the old house, and she followed the smell down into the kitchen, where she found Molly Weasley sitting at the table across from Sirius, who was reading the Daily Prophet, an angered look on his face. "Good morning," Cynthia said slowly, and Mrs. Weasley looked up quickly. "Oh good morning dear, would you like some breakfast?"

"Not yet, thanks, but do you need any help making it?"

"No, but do you mind going up and waking everyone up? Might as well get an early started on cleaning today."

"Absolutely," as she turned, she tried to see the headline of the Prophet, but was unsuccessful, she'd have to check it later.

"Get up, you two!" She said loudly leaning against the dresser in the room Fred and George were sleeping in. Fred merely rolled over and George didn't even manage that. "If you don't get up, I'm giving your mother your Skiving Snackboxes," she said, louder this time. Neither twin moved. Sitting on the edge of George's bed, careful not to sit on his long legs, she pulled out her wand. Rolling her eyes as she did it, she quietly said, "Evanesco," pointing her wand at Fred's pillow, then did the same to George's pillow. Standing up as she admired her handiwork, she again leaned on the dresser, as the two teenage boys in front of her groaned and reluctantly opened their eyes. "I swear, you two could sleep through a bloody hurricane," she said, her scottish accent thicker. A shocked Fred jerked the covers up towards his chin, while she laughed and left the room, practically gliding out.

Once downstairs again, she smiled meekly at Harry, who was already up. "Heard about your court date." She said, she even looked up to him, and he was pretty short as is, "You scared?"

"Er. Yeah, I s'pose." He said, flattening his hair down awkwardly.

"You'll be fine, my dad used to work for Amelia Bones, she's really fair about these things, my sister got into trouble when she was in fifth year for accidentally turning me into a cat, and she was fine with it."

"I'd love to see you as a cat," George said from behind Cynthia, and she punched his arm hard before turning back to Harry, "But you'll be fine, I'm sure."

In the kitchen, she finally got her hands on a copy of the Prophet, and began wishing she hadn't. She simply stared at the page. Set it down, and walked back upstairs.


End file.
